Does McPhersons employ Women to drive down wages & conditions?
There are some disturbing signs that are causing great concern for the Union and women who work in sales at McPhersons. The National Union of Workers have been requesting urgent meetings with the company to address the poor employment conditions that Sales Staff are employed under. The Management including the CEO Mr Paul Maguire, has refused to speak with the union regarding these concerns.
Interestingly, it seems that one of the main reasons sales staff are ignored, underpaid and undervalued appears to be largely due to the fact they are women. The following statistics appear to confirm our worst fears. According to McPherson’s required submission in May 2008 to the Australian Government’s Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA), McPherson’s employ approx 795 staff which 86% are women with Men making up for the other 14%. Of the 86% of Women employed at McPhersons, only one is employed in a Senior management role with 86% of Men enjoying Senior Management positions. The concerns do not end there with more then 500 of these woman employed on a casual or part-time basis even though many need and have requested additional hours but again, this is not the case for Men employed in the company. Of the 104 men employed in the company 100 are employed on a full-time basis. These figures are more alarming given that women do not usually make up the majority of staff in most EOWA Company Submissions.
The obvious question is: how do you have the clear majority of women in the workplace that get less opportunity in all aspects of work in regards to pay, conditions, progression, recognition and fair hours of work? This is even after the report that indicated that promotion opportunities for Women were identified as one of the key issues at McPherson’s. A year after the report was submitted, we still have the management refusing to discuss these employment issues with the union representing these women.
Another disturbing question is why did McPhersons request to have their EOWA evaluation of actions taken in this report confidential from the public report? The National Union of Workers will be writing to the EOWA to notify them of the company’s current stance in relation to Women at McPherson’s.
The most significant and alarming question is: Does McPherson’s Consumer Products deliberately employ Women as a way to reduce business costs with respect to pay and conditions of employment?
Click here to read the EOWA report and judge for yourself.
