Finance Sector Union - 1960s and 70s

1960s and 70s

The ABOA and AISF spent much of the first half of the 1960s consolidating their positions as the representative voice of banking and insurance employees, finally achieving merger with the various state-based staff associations (the AISF also changed its name to the Australian Insurance Employees' Union; the ABOA did not become the ABEU - Australian Bank Employees' Union - until some time later)). In the late 1960s, both unions once again took up the battle for equal pay for women. The employment of women had been resisted (and resented) by male employees right up to the outbreak of WWII, and often only grudgingly tolerated after that conflict because of the changed economic circumstances. By the late 1960s, however, women formed the majority of the workforce in both banking and insurance, and though under-represented in the decision-making organs of both unions, successfully pressed the case for an equal wages campaign.

The first step occurred when the ABOA instituted a policy of supporting women members who undertook claims for back pay for having performed "additional duties" - that is, work classified as "male". In 1969, the Arbitration Court handed down a decision setting out a timetable for the elimination of gender-based wage discrimination, and in 1970, the ABOA won compensation for four women who had not been paid the "male" wage rate when performing "male" classified work. In 1972, the AIEU and ABOA lodged claims for award variations, resulting in a decision that gender-based wage systems would be phased out by 1975. When employers threatened to drag the chain on implementing these reforms, the AIEU authorised strike action - the first time a white collar clerical union in Australia had made such an authorisation. It was overwhelmingly supported by AIEU members.10

As a consequence of these campaigns, in November 1975, the AIEU and ABOA finally achieved the elimination of gender-based wage systems.

The 1970s also saw the ABOA and AISF launch two more successful campaigns: firstly, for the implementation of four weeks' annual leave; and, secondly, the establishment of minimum entitlements for employees who lose their jobs through retrenchment due to organisational or technological change.