Leader of the Opposition

7 March 2016

Women’s day time to commit to equal pay

The Government must use International Women’s Day to assure Kiwi workers that recent legal rulings on pay equity will be upheld for all female-dominated occupations, Leader of the Opposition Andrew Little says.

“The National Government’s record on pay equity is pathetic and its lack of early involvement in Kristine Bartlett’s landmark case shows its parlous commitment to the issue. Tomorrow is the perfect day for it to reverse that position, by giving a public assurance it will not amend the Equal Pay Act to extinguish the rights of any group or occupation making its case for equal pay.

“Equal pay for work of equal value is a principle that applies not only to Kristine and others in the aged care sector, but to all work which is undervalued only because women have traditionally filled those positions.

“A Government I lead would urgently engage with stakeholders from aged care and the disability sector to deliver pay equity to the 50,000 care and support workers who do amazing jobs in our community.

“We would tackle the issue in the public service where an average 14.3% gap still exists between what men and women earn. That’s a disgrace. Yet the Minister of Women’s Affairs seems happy to sit by and watch that occur.

“Since 2009 when National scrapped the pay and employment equity unit, her department has had $500,000 to spend per year on addressing pay equity. They have done nothing to support equal pay for work of equal value.

“Labour would use some of that money to develop expertise within the Employment Court to address equal pay claims. The principle of pay equity must be available to all those in female-dominated industries, and there must be mechanisms to enforce that.

“Pay equity is not just about equality for women: it is critical to preventing child poverty in New Zealand. We will never be the kind of country we want to be if we keep holding women back,” Andrew Little says.

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