Philippa Branthwaite

Women workers earn on average 8.2 percent less than men.

Pay equity is a way of fixing this. It is a way of measuring whether there should be the same pay for different work that has the same or similar level of skills, responsibility and effort.

It is like comparing nurses to police, for example.

The jobs are different, but the level of skills, responsibilities and effort may be the same and that may mean their pay should be the same.

This is an evidence-gathering process and is most efficiently (but not exclusively) done using unions covering large groups of women workers.

Nurses are a good example – there was a claim for all nurses working in the state hospitals. This is much more efficient than doing it nurse by nurse.    

Last week, the coalition Government of National, Act and NZ First, led by Workplace Minister Brooke van Velden (Act), rushed through changes to pay equity law, which would make it harder to lodge claims.

The changes mean that 33 current claims – representing thousands of nurses, teachers, carers, social workers, and support staff  – were dropped. Some of these claims had been going for over three years.

At least three of these cases were nearly completed. They now all have to start over again using different criteria and processes.

This change will impact hundreds of thousands of workers.  

There was no analysis to support the change, and no reason for the urgency. The prime minister went missing during the debate and in question time. He continues to show his lack of leadership.  

This law has been in place since 2020, and its introduction was supported by the National party.

Erica Stanford and Nicola Willis quoted their daughters when they spoke about pay equity back then, saying that they would know it was successful when their daughters were being fairly paid.

Well, I wonder if they asked their daughters how they feel about it now? They certainly didn’t ask any of us, or our daughters, or our granddaughters, or any of the woman who will be affected by the dumping of the claims and the changing of the criteria. They just made the decision and rammed it through.  

This was just a way of saving the Government billions of dollars a little over two weeks out from a budget they cannot balance. They are making women pay for their poor decisions. Poor decisions such as borrowing money for tax cuts, borrowing money to give landlords tax credits and borrowing money for big tobacco tax credits.

They have been desperately cutting the cost of public services to try and grab some of this money back so they can balance the books.

We know this because we are seeing it in our beleaguered health system; look no further than Whakatāne Hospital.

We see it in cuts to the Department of Conservation and the police. They have cut infrastructure spending on hospitals, schools, housing, water reform, and even cut the ferries putting our only link to the South Island at risk.

This is a Government that can only think in the short term. They do not know how to build, only to cut. This is a big cut; it is aimed at women.

Maybe they thought we would shut up and take it lying down. Not this time.  

With one days’ notice over 100 women and men rallied outside East Coast MP Dana Kirkpatrick’s office to show their disdain for the Government’s decision and for her culpability in supporting this change.

Our role is to make another change next year.

Let’s make this a one-term Government.