Joint working group starts on new round of pay equity laws

Tuesday, 23 January 2018

Facilitator Traci Houpapa, with Julie Anne Genter and Iain Lees-Galloway, will guide the joint working group considering how to compare pay between industries.

Government is working to overhaul proposed legislation that it says has made it harder for women to fight for pay equity.

The minister for workplace relations and safety Iain Lees-Galloway, and minister for women Julie Anne Genter are reconvening the joint working group on pay equity principles as the next step in pay equity for New Zealand women.

The original working group, set up in 2015, developed a set of principles to guide the implementation of pay equity.

But the legislation introduced by the previous government made it harder for women to make a pay equity claim - in part because they could no longer look to other industries to benchmark their pay. They would have to establish their case before they could make a claim and only when a dispute arose could they seek help from a mediation service.

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'The legislation proposed by the previous government was withdrawn from Parliament as one of the very first things we did. The old legislation undermined the original joint working group principles and created unnecessary hurdles for workers raising claims,' Lees-Galloway said.

'All three parties of the new government were opposed to the previous legislation, and said that we would not rest until New Zealand workers have genuine opportunities for pay equity. By reconvening the joint working group, we can address these issues and propose new legislation to provide a fairer deal for women.'

Genter said the government was committed to improving fairness in the workplace for women.

'Our priority is making sure women working in women-dominated jobs get paid fairly.

'A woman shouldn't be paid less just because she is a woman working in a female-dominated industry.'

The key issues the reconvened Joint Working Group will consider are: Determining the merit of a claim as a pay equity claim and how to select appropriate male comparators when assessing the work subject to a pay equity claim.

'Once we receive the recommendations we will work to develop pay equity legislation which we expect to introduce mid-2018,' Genter said.

BusinessNZ and the Employers and Manufacturers Association, along with the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions, are part of the working group.

BusinessNZ chief executive Kirk Hope said it would be important for the new legislation to enable legitimate pay equity claims to be easily identified and settled.

Alex Sims, University of Auckland commercial law associate professor, said it was a good thing the group had been reconvened. 'Although I am sceptical about whether anything will actually change, we have had legislation that has 'required' equal pay for over 45 years and we know that it hasn't worked. We need to look at models that do work.'

She said Iceland had a system in which it was not up to the employee to prove she had been discriminated against. Companies had to prove their practices were fair.

At First Union, general secretary Dennis Maga welcomed the move.

'We're really pleased to see the working group reconvene. We're looking forward to workers, their employers and the government coming together to secure equal pay in 2018. Retail workers, nurses, teachers and other working women across the country are keen to get to work right away on equal pay settlements.'