How will the Secure Jobs, Better Pay Act impact human resource management? (Part 2)

As part of our examination and guide to the changes flowing from the Secure Jobs, Better Pay Act, we continue our series with this next instalment on the provisions relating to pay secrecy and job advertisements. Our first article looked at fixed term contracts and flexible work.

Prohibiting pay secrecy

Policy rationale: The Government considers that workers who want to discuss pay equity at work should not be prohibited by their employment contracts from doing so. The Hon Tony Burke MP, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Minister for the Arts said that the legislation will bring transparency to workplaces and would protect workers by saying "if you want to tell someone how much you are paid, that's up to you." The recent changes are seen as a means to promoting gender-based pay equity by assisting women to confirm they are not being paid less than male employees for doing the same job.