Cement Australia wins award for work on gender pay gap

Cement Australia has been awarded the Minister’s Award for Outstanding EEO Practice for its efforts to address the gender pay gap.

The Minister made the presentation at today’s Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA) Business Achievement Awards in Sydney.

The award is in recognition of Cement Australia’s efforts to ensure equality in their organisation, including rigorous analysis and review of pay and grading criteria annually.

The company, which has plants in Queensland, New South Wales and Tasmania, also initiated a program which involves comparing salary and grading information for all female employees to similar roles filled by male employees.

“The EOWA Business Achievement Awards recognise organisations at the forefront of driving change for a more equitable workplace,” Ms Plibersek said.

“The Australian Government is working hard to improve gender equality, and the EOWA Awards are part of our commitment to improving women’s economic and social outcomes.

“I congratulate all of today’s finalists and award winners for doing their bit to address inequality, and encourage more businesses to follow their lead to help bridge the gap.”

EOWA Acting Director Mairi Steele congratulated Cement Australia on winning the award.

“The reason Cement Australia won the award is that very few organisations undertake any kind of review of pay equity at all and those that do are often very limited,” Ms Steele said.

“This was a really committed and comprehensive analysis which is rare. Cement Australia tackled the issue at all levels of the organisation to really look at it as a systemic issue and that is what was so impressive.”

Figures show that while many women have achieved high office, good pay and significant influence, inequality remains widespread. Women earn 83 cents for every dollar men earn.

The number of female board directors in the ASX top 200 actually fell from 8.7 per cent to 8.3 per cent over the last two years.

The Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Act is currently under review. Submissions have now closed, with over 120 received.

“The Government remains concerned about pay equity, work and family balance,” Ms Plibersek said.

“The review will investigate what’s working and where we may need a new approach.

“A key focus of the review will be finding better ways to help employers implement equal employment opportunity in their organisations.”