Thursday, November 19, 2009

The University, in partnership with the tertiary education sector unions, is to undertake a pay and employment equity review to determine the extent to which gender affects women's pay and employment experiences, and to find ways to remove barriers and achieve better outcomes for all staff.

The review was announced by the University's Assistant Vice-Chancellor for People and Organisational Development, Alan Davis, and the Tertiary Education Union National Women's Officer Suzanne McNabb.

Mr Davis says it has been planned for several months and is an integral part of a range of initiatives signalled in the University's Road to 2020 strategy in relation to women and leadership and equal employment opportunity.

Early next year Massey staff will be invited to participate in a voluntary, confidential on-line survey about their experiences around pay and employment equity. The survey information will be considered alongside payroll and human resources data that has been analysed by gender.

A review committee, to be chaired by Professor Sylvia Rumball, is being established to analyse and interpret the information that is gathered, and to understand the extent of any gender-driven differences in pay and employment experiences – specifically if and how gender contributes to lower pay for women and lower levels of representation in some types of work and in senior positions. Staff members are today being invited to express interest in participating on that committee.

Fifty-six per cent of Massey staff are women and 47 per cent of the academic staff are women, Mr Davis says, but only 17 per cent of professors and 33 per cent of associate professors are women. "We are seeing some pleasing trends in the success rate of women in academic promotions rounds, but, if we are to achieve our goals of excellence in everything we do we need to accelerate this and we need to establish a reputation as an enabling workplace free of practices that might hold talented people back."

Ms McNabb says Massey is the first New Zealand university to undertake a comprehensive review of pay and employment issues for women. "The Tertiary Education Union has a long history of working towards pay and employment equity and is proud to be working in co-operation with management to conduct this review. Women workers care about pay and employment equity in the workplace – they want to be sure that they have the same opportunities to develop their skills, be promoted and participate at senior levels of the organisation. Above all women want equitable pay. They want the work they do fairly recognised, valued and paid accordingly."

ENDS