Award Changes and Gender Undervaluation: Building an IR Change Roadmap with Winnchester
A lot of headlines have focused on big-ticket reforms, but some of the most immediate impacts for employers are flowing from decisions already made by the Fair Work Commission – particularly around gender undervaluation in female-dominated awards.
At the same time, other changes (right to disconnect, new pathways for casuals, psychosocial risk obligations, payday super) are stacking up. Many HR teams are understandably feeling like they’re chasing moving targets.
Winnchester Consulting is helping clients convert this complexity into a workable roadmap.
Award changes driven by gender undervaluation
After being required to actively consider gender equality when setting award rates, the Commission has found that several female-dominated sectors are undervalued.
This is driving:
Phased pay increases under certain awards.
Reclassification of roles, with revised descriptors.
Adjustments to loadings, penalties and allowances.
Affected areas include:
Early childhood and children’s services.
Health professionals and support services.
Pharmacy.
Social, community, home care and disability services.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and community-controlled services.
For organisations in these sectors, this is not a simple “update the pay table” job; it is a structural shift.
What this means in practice
We’re working with clients on four main impact areas:
Payroll – ensuring the right rates, loadings and penalties feed through at the right time, including staged increases.
Budgeting – understanding the multi-year wage impact and building it into financial plans.
Documentation – updating position descriptions, contract templates and onboarding materials to line up with new classifications.
Compliance – avoiding underpayment risk and associated reputational damage.
How Winnchester structures the response
Confirm whether you’re in scope
Identify any employees paid under the affected awards.
For enterprise agreement employers, review how your agreement references these awards and whether you have “shadow” classification structures.
Track the FWC process deliberately
We pull key dates and obligations into a simple change register rather than relying on ad-hoc email updates.
This includes consultation windows, draft decisions, final determinations and the timing of staged increases.
Map impacted cohorts and cost
Tag employees by award, classification and location to see exactly who is affected.
Model the cost across each stage of the increases, including potential flow-on adjustments to keep internal relativities sensible (e.g. between supervisors and direct reports).
Align systems and documentation
Update HRIS and payroll settings for new rates and classifications.
Check that overtime, loadings and penalties are configured correctly under the revised rules.
Refresh PDs and contracts so they reference the correct classification language, not outdated levels or descriptors.
Prepare leaders to communicate with confidence
Provide briefing notes and FAQs for managers to explain what is changing and why.
Support you to talk about the link between these changes, gender equity and your organisation’s values.
Anticipate questions from employees who are close to, but not within, the directly affected classifications.
Other reforms to factor into your roadmap
Alongside award changes, we’re helping clients plan for:
National minimum wage and award rate increases.
Right to Disconnect obligations extending to small businesses.
Employee Choice Pathway arrangements for eligible casuals.
Strengthened psychosocial hazard regulations and their interaction with WHS duties.
Payday super, requiring superannuation to be paid at the same time as wages from 1 July 2026.
Each element is manageable on its own; the challenge is coordinating them.
How Winnchester can help pull this together
We’re working with organisations to:
Build a tailored IR/HR change register with clear owners and timelines.
Prioritise reforms by risk and required lead time.
Support HR to engage Finance, Payroll, WHS and Legal so the load is shared.
If you’d like to turn your industrial relations change list into a practical, sequenced plan – rather than a set of loose notes – we can help you design and implement that roadmap.
