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Thanks but no thanks!


Thanks but no thanks!

The new legislation for pay equity takes away some of the hard won victories for women in the recent Terranova case. If that is the price of new legislation we say no thanks. The current Equal Pay Act 1972 has been shown to work.

CEVEP welcomes the decision on the payments due to aged care workers following the Kristine Barlett/Terranova case. On the day this decision was announced the government slipped in under the radar their intention to institute new legislation to resolve future pay equity claims. What the government neglected to say was that the proposed legislation would create new hurdles for claimants like Kristine Bartlett.

The government has released an exposure draft of an Employment (Pay Equity and Equal Pay) Bill. This Bill proposes that in order to make claims women will need to meet new historical criteria and will restrict how pay equity will be determined. The process outlined also requires going backwards and forwards to progress claims in what can only be seen as an illogical manner that will tie up claimants, employers and state agencies. This is particularly so as new legal interpretations will be required at some of the steps. The process proposed is not clear and simple, and will require the expertise of professionals in order to proceed through each steps. And, at the end of the day, there will be no backpay for those women (and men) unless the employer agrees. In this way, it once again singles out those working in female predominant occupations for second class treatment. Everyone else whose pay is unlawful is entitled to back wages.

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The government promised to make it easier for women to make pay equity claims and to end pay discrimination. This legislation does not do that so CEVEP says “Thanks but no thanks! Let us keep the legislation we now know works!”

The Campaign for Equal Value, Equal Pay (CEVEP) is a voluntary organisation committed to reducing the gender pay gap in New Zealand through policy and initiatives to advance pay equity in general and equal pay for work of equal value in particular.

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