Government receives Pay Equity principles

Joint Working Group on Pay Equity Principles statement

The Joint Working Group on Pay Equity Principles has provided the Government with its recommendations for pay equity principles.

The recommended principles guide the implementation of pay equity for all workplaces, based on a good faith bargaining approach under the Employment Relations Act.

The principles were devised in response to a Court of Appeal decision in Terranova v Service and Food Workers Union and Bartlett, which held that the Equal Pay Act 1972 required equal pay for work of equal value rather than the same pay for the same work.

Crown Facilitator of the Joint Working Group, Dame Patsy Reddy, said the working group was set a challenging task, but approached the process constructively.

“From the outset the Joint Working Group focussed on achieving an outcome and worked very well together to develop the recommendations. Pay equity is a very complex issue and I would like to pay tribute to the good will and spirit of endeavour that the parties brought to the working group process. The members of the Joint Working Group should be proud of what they have achieved.”

Lead BusinessNZ representative on the Pay Equity Joint Working Group Phil O’Reilly said the use of normal rules of individual or collective bargaining to reach pay equity outcomes was a straightforward and robust approach.

“The use of existing good faith provisions in the Employment Relations Act and existing dispute processes including mediation, facilitation and determinations from the Employment Relations Authority will assist the parties concerned,” Mr O’Reilly said.

CTU president, lead union representative on the on the Pay Equity Joint Working Group Richard Wagstaff said the group can take pride in the agreed principles.

“We are now closer along the path to achieving equal pay for work of equal value than we ever have been before. New Zealand has led the world in equality when in 1893 women won the right to vote. We can still be world leaders, this time in equal pay,” Mr Wagstaff said.

The principles have been released as part of the work of the pay equity joint working group. Ministers are taking time to formally consider them.

ENDS

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