E tū is slamming the Government’s announcement that it
will make it harder for workers to claim pay equity,
describing it as an attack on women and a green light to pay
them less for work of equal value.
The changes,
announced by Workplace Relations Minister Brooke van Velden,
will raise the bar for proving historical undervaluation in
female-dominated workforces – cutting off current claims
and making new ones near
impossible.
Marianne Bishop, a residential
aged care worker, says the move is a slap in the face to
workers who have been fighting for fairness for
years.“I am absolutely disgusted. It makes me angry
as a woman, and makes me feel like we’re going
backwards,” Marianne says.
“We’ve
been fighting for 13 years. To have the rug pulled out from
underneath us now is unbelievable. We thought we were going
to get there – this just removes our road to
fairness.”
Marianne says the impact on the care
sector will be severe.
“This will make it even
harder to get people working in aged care. People won’t go
the extra mile anymore – why would they, if they’re not
going to get paid fairly? This announcement is terrible for
women and families now and in the future.”
Tamara
Baddeley, a home support worker, says the Government’s
actions show total contempt for the workers who hold the
care system together.
“This makes me feel f***ing
angry. This Government is a nest of vipers – they speak
with a forked tongue,” Tamara says.
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“I challenge
every single one of them to come and work with us. On our
wages. Getting assaulted at work, paying for travel out of
your own pocket. Then tell us why cutting off our pay equity
claim is a good idea.”
“Our claim’s been sitting
there for 1,040 days. Why the f*** are we still
waiting?”
E tū National Secretary Rachel Mackintosh
says the decision is cruel, ideological, and deeply
anti-women.
“The Government is dismantling one of
the most important tools for fixing gender-based pay
discrimination,” Rachel says.
“These changes are
not about evidence – they are about saving money by
keeping women underpaid. It’s a disgraceful reversal of
decades of hard-fought progress and an insult to the working
women who carried this country through a
pandemic.”
Rachel says workers will not stay
silent.
“We won’t go back to the days where a
woman’s work is automatically worth less just because
it’s been done by women in the past. We’re not going to
stand quietly while this Government rips up the rules and
tells us to be grateful for whatever we
get.”
“This is a line in the sand. And women
across Aotearoa will fight this every step of the
way.”
