Kristine Bartlett at a pay equity protest outside the Court of Appeal Photo: NZCTU
A key figure in the fight for pay equity says the government's radical overhaul of the law has brought her to tears.
On Tuesday, Workplace Minister Brooke van Velden announced the government was pushing through legislation under urgency which would make it harder to lodge claims.
The change meant 33 current claims - representing thousands of workers - would be dropped and must be started again.
"Claims have been able to progress without strong evidence of undervaluation and there have been very broad claims where it is difficult to tell whether differences in pay are due to sex-based discrimination or other factors," van Velden said.
The minister said the claims were concentrated in the public sector with costs to the Crown of all settlements so far totalling $1.78 billion a year.
Van Velden said she still supported pay equity but the laws surrounding the claims process had become "muddied and unclear".
"So these changes are better for all women who are working where we can genuinely say hand on heart that what they are finding with their claims is genuine gender based discrimination," van Velden said.
'Gut wrenching' - Care and support advocate
Kristine Bartlett helped win a $2b settlement from the government for rest home workers in 2017.
She said news of the changes brought her to tears.
"It's really gut wrenching. I just feel so sorry for these women workers [and] employees. They don't know what situation they're going to end up with now. It's terrible, it's sad," Bartlett said.
Bartlett said unions would not take the changes lying down and she would be right there with them to continue the fight for pay equity.
"What's going to happen? They're going to move over to Australia. All these good nurses, teachers, carers. What's going to happen to our retirement villages? I mean it's bad enough now.
"I know what's going to happen within the unions. I tell you what, there's going to be a big rebellion I'm sure," Bartlett said.
'Kick in the guts' for workers with claims pending - Tertiary Education Union
Tertiary Education Union president Dr Sandra Grey Photo: RNZ / Ian Telfer
The Tertiary Education Union's Sandra Grey says there was no need for the government to ram through pay equity law changes under urgency.
She said the union had two claims representing thousands of university administration and library staff that would now be canned.
"The universities have agreed there is a pay equity case to be answered. We are well down the track of formulating those claims. Now those women have just been kicked in the guts by this government," Grey said.
Grey said the government should have consulted with women and the public before making the law changes.
Wellington primary school teacher Kalesha Segatta and NZEI branch member said she could not understand why the government had made it harder for women to achieve pay parity with male-dominated industries.
She said a claim affecting more than 100,000 primary, secondary and early childhood teachers and staff was among those that would be scrapped by the move.
"It tells me that the priority of the government is not education and it's certainly not maintaining and retaining a teaching workforce in Aotearoa.
"I think educators across the country - who have reviews in the train - feel the opposite of valued today," Segatta said.
She said rushing the change through under urgency had denied women their voice on policies that directly affected their lives.
Taking legislation back to original - EMA
Employers and Manufacturers Association head of advocacy, finance and strategy Alan McDonald said pay equity was a good thing but the current legislation was being used in a way it was not originally intended for.
"It's basically taking the legislation back to the original piece of work that was agreed, ourselves, businesses and the unions at the time in 2017, which came up with a pay equity framework then, which we all agreed," he told Morning Report.
In 2020, this was relaxed, he said.
"It almost became a defacto national wage round if you like and that was the concern at the time."
McDonald said the skills comparative base was so wide that if one case was successful it would be used in the next.
Legislation means no 'fishing for discrimination' - Brooke van Velden
Workplace Minister Brooke van Velden. Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
On Tuesday, Brooke van Velden said any assertion of gender-based disparity would be restricted to comparing female employees and male employees at the same employer, or if that was not possible, then to other similar employers.
"But you cannot go fishing for discrimination across the New Zealand workforce," van Velden said.
The Library and Information Association (LIANZA) said pay equity claims - instigated with six councils in 2019 - were made on the basis that the work of librarians and library assistants was historically and currently undervalued as it was performed predominantly by women.
Another case for a claim for tertiary education library workers and library administrators was put forward in 2022.
LIANZA executive director Laura Marshall said there were few comparable industries that reflected the same skill level, multifaceted work and qualifcations held by library staff.
She said some library workers were having to work three jobs to pay living costs despite many of them having "postgraduate degrees with jobs requiring highly technical skills".
She said reducing the ability to compare roles with other jobs would diminish the professional standards required to do the work.
"Libraries employing new staff want to be able to pay what staff with training and qualifications are worth - and this legislation is a step backwards in libraries' attempts to value their workers.
"We don't want skilled people to be leaving or choosing not to join the industry because of this - but unfortunately, supporting your whānau does play a role in your job choice, even if it is a passion," Marshall said.
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