The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi is slamming the Government’s proposed changes to the Equal Pay Act, announced today by Brooke van Velden, as an attack on working women and their rights to pay equity.

“It is shameful that the Government is cancelling pay equity for hundreds of thousands of working women in order to balance the budget,” said NZCTU Secretary Melissa Ansell-Bridges.

“These changes will gut the Equal Pay Act and lock in gender discrimination and inequity for years to come.

“Pay equity is an issue of justice, not penny pinching. There is no excuse to ignore injustice, especially when employers’ business models have been predicated on the exploitation of women. The coalition is prioritising tax cuts for the rich over justice for poorly paid women.

“This is not just about cancelling current claims, which would be bad enough, but the changes will also retrospectively rip up existing settlements by removing the review clauses. This will mean that those workers will soon lose the value of their claims.

“This Government seems determined to undo all the progress that working women have made on achieving equal pay. They disestablished the Pay Equity Taskforce, pulled funding for settlements, and are now gutting the Act.

“It is totally unacceptable that Brooke van Velden is intending to push these changes through Parliament in two days under urgency, bypassing democratic scrutiny and due process.

“This Minister is once again demonstrating her contempt for working people and a total disregard for workers’ rights, fair pay and good work,” said Ansell-Bridges.

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