The Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union (CFMEU) has slammed last week's revelation that the gender pay gap in the mining industry doubled in 2009, calling it "absolute nonsense."
The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy's (AusIMM) 2009 Remuneration and Employment Survey revealed that the gender pay gap at the top level of responsibility, Level Five, grew to 58.3% in 2009.
This disparity had nearly doubled since the 2008 survey, the AusIMM said.
A report from last year's Federal Government inquiry into gender pay equity, Make it Fair, revealed the industry-wide pay gap at the most senior level stood at 18%.
However, CFMEU spokesperson Steve Pierce said the report did not accurately reflect how women are paid in the coal industry.
"We have enough mistruths and half stories being printed in the press about the coal industry all the time without having this sort of thing sent out there," he told the ABC.
"That basically attempts to portray that women in the coal industry are being treated as second-class citizens in respect to wages.
"It is just absolute nonsense."
Pierce was unavailable for comment when contacted by MINING DAILY this morning.
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