Council of Trade Unions President Richard Wagstaff said today that he was looking forward to the Government reconvening the Joint Working Group on equal pay as soon as possible. “Putting equal pay into law and practice is absolutely our priority for 2018” he said. “We’re really pleased to see that the Government is keen to pick up again on a constructive consensus-based process.”
“Putting Government, business and unions together in the same room is the best way to make swift progress on implementing equal pay. We already have an agreed set of principles which the current Government has said they will put into existing law. The National Party threw a spanner in the works by deviating from the agreed working group principles before the election last year. We have been mandated by the current Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety and the Minister for Women to specifically look at the areas where National wandered off-track, and advise on the unnecessary hurdles to accessing equal pay they introduced. The report back date of the end of next month gives us confidence the Government wants swift wage justice for women.”
“Nurses, teachers, mental health staff, and social workers are just some of the groups of working people relying on this Government to progress equal pay in 2018. The next steps are implementing the Joint Working Group recommendations, putting the principles in to law, and setting aside fair funding in the 2018 Government Budget to provide for equal pay settlements. All of this can be progressed before the end of this year.”
The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions is calling on MPs to work together to deliver a fair equal pay law by ‘women working for free day’, the 14th of November 2018: www.together.org.nz/ill-remember