UN complaint against pay parity knee capping

NZ pay equity rollback triggers United Nations complaint – NZCTU

A group of organisations has lodged a formal complaint with the United Nations, asking it to investigate whether the government’s changes to New Zealand’s pay equity laws amount to systemic discrimination against women.

The complaint, brought by Pay Equity Coalition Aotearoa (PECA), which includes New Zealand Council of Trade Unions, and Te Kāhui Tika Tangata Human Rights Commission, comes exactly one year after legislation cancelled existing pay equity claims and introduced stricter tests for bringing new claims.

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Pay equity claims are raised to ensure that people receive equal pay for work of equal value.  The cancelled claims covered more than 180,000 workers – the vast majority women – across care and disability support, education, health, and community and social services.

The legislative changes compounded disadvantage for wāhine Māori, Pacific women, migrant women, disabled women, and older women workers, who face the largest pay gaps with men. According to the Ministry of Women, Pacific women experience the largest of these gaps at 15.8%.

Dame Judy McGregor, spokesperson for PECA, says the changes have stalled progress for workers in historically undervalued roles.

“These are roles that have been chronically undervalued for decades. A year on, workers are no closer to justice. The law change has created a system that is much harder to access or work with – one where the thresholds and controls now make it extremely difficult for claims to proceed.”

Many of the affected sectors are publicly funded or directly employed by the state. The group says this sits at the heart of the complaint.

“The Government was not only the law-maker – it was also the largest employer affected by these claims. That raises serious questions about fairness when the rules are changed in a way that removes claims involving its own workforce,” says Dame Judy McGregor.

NZCTU

Let’s be very clear.

What this Government did by abusing their power when they kneecapped pay equity is such an egregious wound upon the NZ waking environment, it must be challenged very single step of the way and if that means to the UN, then so be it!

The permanent damage ACT, National and NZFirst caused working people by depriving so many low waged women and men their legitimate rights to pay rises so that they could fund their tax cuts and corporate welfare should be a never ending shame.

The Right will steal your money, but play to your petty bigotries.

Their satisfaction come not from an improvement in your quality of life, but by making others’ lives worse.

Refusing to let the issue go, continuing to fight and finally getting a win for working people is what the Unions do best.