CTU Media release

20 February 2009

Working women deserve better from Government

CTU President Helen Kelly today criticised State Services Minister Tony Ryall for ending two government investigations into pay and employment equity for women.

Enquiries into why female social workers at Child, Youth and Family are paid 9.5% less than their male counterparts, and inequities in female school support workers’ wages have been scrapped because they would cost too much. The investigations were part of the Government’s pay and employment equity plan of action.

Helen Kelly said: ‘It is one thing to urge pay restraint in the public sector but quite another to endorse the unfair underpayment of these workers. The Government is effectively telling its own female employees that it doesn’t care if it is discriminating against them.

‘Women deserve better treatment than this. The Government’s actions send out an unacceptable message to other employers in New Zealand. We say that the economic situation cannot be used to justify discriminatory pay and conditions.

‘New Zealand has been a leader and has shown great innovation in its approach to pay and employment equity. Good progress is starting to be made. It is important that this continues.’

ENDS

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