The Sex Discrimination Act: Advancing Gender Equality and Decent Work?

The paper starts with a brief overview of the main Australian regulatory measures that address sex gender (in)equality in employment. It argues that a major constraint on the influence of the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 on the conditions of women's employment has been its effective separation from industrial relations (IR) law. This has made it difficult to conceive of sex discrimination as a mainstream IR issue and means the gender equality impact of IR regulation, reflected in classification structures, bargaining provisions and working time arrangements, remains invisible. The paper then weighs up the potential of the decent work agenda first proposed by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the ILO's framing of gender equality as 'at the heart of decent work' as the basis for a more effective and integrated policy and regulatory framework.