NZEI Te Riu Roa has welcomed the Labour Party’s promise
to reverse pay equity changes within its first 100 days in
government, urging all other political parties to commit
their support to upholding the value of women’s
work.
NZEI Te Riu Roa national member leader Ally
Kingi said the work of historically female-dominated
education staff has long been undervalued due to systemic
gender discrimination.
“Reversing this legislation
is a crucial first step, but in a cost-of-living crisis, it
must be matched by a commitment to speedily fund pay equity
so that our education workforce can finally get the fair pay
they deserve,” Ms Kingi said.
In NZEI’s Platform
for Change, the education union is seeking the repeal –
within the first 100 days of government – of last year’s
pay equity legislation, which scrapped 34 live claims
overnight. It is also proposing to replace it with an
updated 2020 Act so that claims and reviews can resume
immediately.
Those impacted by last year’s changes
include teachers, psychologists, education advisors, and
service managers.
The changes also halted review
processes for school therapists, teacher aides, librarians,
science technicians, kaiārahi i te reo, and administration
staff.
NZEI Te Riu Roa has long championed pay equity,
winning a settlement for teacher aides in November 2020 that
increased pay by 19% to 30%.
“For teacher aides, pay
rates have slipped backwards by up to 17% against male
comparators since their 2020 pay equity settlement, and
there is now little recourse to address this,” Ms Kingi
said.
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