NZ Nurses Organisation says it’s gearing up to make new pay equity claims

Wednesday, 21 May 2025

The law changes sparked widespread protests.

The New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) says it will forge ahead with new pay equity claims as soon as possible despite several lingering questions about how the new system will work.

Chief executive Paul Goulter said the organisation was meeting with Plunket today, and last week met with Hospice New Zealand, in a bid to get back up and running claims that were close to being finalised when the Government made urgent changes to the Equal Pay Act earlier this month.

“[We have] agreed to progress the claims as quickly as we can in the new environment and work to overcome hurdles,” said Goulter. “There is a great keenness on the employer side and the NZNO side getting this back under way again.”

The changes were made under urgency in the House, and were passed less than 36 hours later.

Pay equity protest outside Vanessa Weenink's Ferry Rd office.

Under the amended law, claims can only be made under narrower terms, including a “hierarchy of comparators” under which female claimants can compare their work to similar male-dominated industries.

The previous legislation allowed for comparisons where the work was different, but the skills, experience, responsibilities, working conditions and degrees of effort were considered the same or substantially similar. For example, social workers were compared to air traffic controllers.

Workplace Relations Minister Brooke van Velden previously said that had led to settled claims without strong evidence of undervaluation and “broad claims where it is difficult to tell whether differences in pay are due to sex-based discrimination or other factors”.

Under the new rules the comparator must be a male workforce that performs work that is similar or substantially similar, or work that is different but where skills, experience, responsibilities, working conditions or degrees of effort are similar or substantially similar.

New Zealand Nurses Organisation chief executive Paul Goulter said there was a “keenness” from both sides to get on with progressing the claims again.

The threshold has also narrowed in that for a workforce to be predominantly considered female, it must be 70% female (previously it was 60%) for at least 10 consecutive years, and a claim must have “merit” and not just be “arguable”.

“Our view is that obviously it’s harder to get these things under way … I guess our approach is ultimately, this is going to have to be tested in practice and so there is no better way to do that than get started and try and work our way through it,” said Goulter.

That was despite having “no doubt at all it is way more difficult and we believe that is by design”.

In the health sector, which was overwhelmingly female, it was going to be a struggle to find a male comparator group, he said.

The group was awaiting more regulation detail including clarification of what oversight mechanism there would be.

“These are really important questions. Our approach is, were going to push ahead with it until we reach those hard rocks and we will deal with them as we occur.”

Van Velden said MBIE would administer the legislation and guidance and was in the process of developing the latter.

Beth Goodwin, MBIE’s employment relations policy manager, said it was working with the Public Service Commission and Treasury to “support the new regime”.

“Based on our discussions we understand they are working with agencies to ensure that they are ready to implement the new regime in relation to any claims that are raised now the amended Act is in force.

“MBIE will continue to support employers, employees and unions with pay equity guidance and information. This guidance is in the process of being developed and will be available on the MBIE and Employment NZ websites.”