New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi Secretary Melissa Ansell-Bridges has taken the pay equity fight to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) conference in Geneva, Switzerland. The ILO is a United Nations agency whose mandate is to advance social and economic justice by setting international labour standards.

“I spoke about the recent pay equity changes at the ILO to highlight that Christopher Luxon’s Government has abandoned what was world-leading pay equity legislation,” said Ansell-Bridges.

“It was important to inform the 187 member states that despite not being signalled in the last election, reforms to severely undermine the legislation were passed under urgency without any consultation with workers or their unions.

“Overnight this world-leading system was gutted and what remained in its place is a series of roadblocks, impossible thresholds and obstacle courses masquerading as pay equity.

“180,000 workers, mostly women, many of whom are some of the most vulnerable and lowest paid workers in New Zealand, had their claims cancelled and years of work thrown away.

“Our response to massive undervaluation of pay in female-dominated industries must be how do we fix this, not how do we shirk these costs, having benefited so long from underpaying women.

“We could once be proud on the world stage for making progress towards correcting this blatant sexism – it is shameful that we now have a government that has such low regard for the right to be free from gender discrimination.

“I assured the conference that the union movement in Aotearoa New Zealand will continue to push for a genuine pay equity system and will not rest until women’s work is properly valued and workers everywhere are paid equitably regardless of their gender,” said Ansell-Bridges.

© Scoop Media