Maurie O'Sullivan's farewell - Sue Walsh's speech

Speech by Sue Walsh, PSA President, at farewell dinner for Maurie O'Sullivan, 9 July 2003

Friends

You will hear from other speakers tonight about some of the amazing things Maurie has achieved during his time with the PSA. But I would like to emphasise some of the many women's issues that Maurie has supported over the years.

While Maurie has held the tenure of General Secretary the PSA had an outstanding victory in the Librarians', Library Technicians and Archivists' Award case in the NSW Commission. It is a testament to his commitment that the PSA forged the path in taking on this landmark case. It not only involved the PSA taking somewhat of a leap into the unknown as the first union to use the Equal Pay Principle adopted in 2000 by the NSW Commission, but involved a substantial commitment from the union in terms of legal costs, staff time and an enormous effort.

Maurie's decision to make that commitment was certainly rewarded when the Full Bench handed down its decision which not only found that these professions had been historically undervalued because they were women, but resulted in an average of 16% pay increases across the classifications. Overall the decision was a fantastic one for our members in these professions, and was a critically important decision in the wider fight for pay equity for women, both in Australia and internationally.

It's important to stress that Maurie's involvement in this case didn't just extend to the PSA taking the glory for such an outstanding outcome. He has continued the fight, particularly with Treasury, to ensure that these pay rises are not only delivered to the workers who fought for them, but also to ensure that there are no behind the scenes moves by agencies to try and claw back the costs of the pay increases through job losses and the downsizing of libraries.

Maurie has also been one of the principal forces behind ensuring that women are now paid superannuation while on paid maternity leave. This was a long standing piece of workplace discrimination which Maurie tackled head on, even threatening to take the Government to the Anti Discrimination Board, before they finally relented and changed the legislation.

Adoption leave was another issue which was finally resolved last year after Maurie's dogged efforts to have this employment condition made more equitable. Perhaps his years in DOCS helped, but Maurie made it quite clear that to offer adoptive parents only 3 weeks paid leave as opposed to the 9 week paid maternity leave offered to birth parents was unfair and unreasonable. For the small group of our members this affected, it was a major change and a victory for fair treatment.

Maurie has also been very supportive of women within the PSA and his encouragement of our women members and female staff has been a pleasure to watch. In the last few years the PSA has taken on the sometimes difficult task for unions, to do as much as we can to make our organisation one which is welcoming to women and men, as well as to members from all kinds of backgrounds and experiences. We now, not only run training courses especially for women, but train both our industrial staff and administrative staff in antidiscrimination and equal employment opportunity. We've established an Equity Advisory Committee and have an Aboriginal Liaison Officer on staff.

We have also started a new reporting process with the Federal Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency, which requires stringent reporting requirements for organisations in how they deal with their women employees. This is a credit to the PSA and to Maurie's leadership, as there is no doubt that many unions find it far easier to deal with discrimination in their members' workplaces than to put their own organisational standards under the spotlight.

There has certainly been a great relationship in the last few years between Maurie's office and the women members, staff involved in the Women's Unit and Women's Council. When they have needed to ask the difficult stuff, when we've needed to put substantial resources into legal assistance for women members who have faced discrimination and harassment in the workplace, Maurie has been 100% behind us. And it has been very much appreciated.

Finally, just a fortnight ago, when the NSW Working Women's Centre was facing closure by Tony Abbot's Dept, Maurie was there as one the most vocal supporters in the union movement. He is someone who genuinely cares about those women in the community who are the most disadvantaged and marginalised in the workforce, and the fact that the WWC knew they could count on Maurie for his real support, was a testament to his character.

Well, MOS, I will be sad to see you go but I am also glad that you have shared so many wonderful years with the PSA. On behalf of members, delegates, councillors, and the executive I wish you, Joanne and your family all the very best in your retirement and thank you for your splendid contribution to the Union Movement and to the people of New South Wales.