Pay Equity Coalition submits today at Parliament on Equal Pay Bill

The Pay Equity Coalition (PEC) Wellington presented their oral submission to the Education and Workforce Committee on the Equal Pay Amendment Bill today.

The coalition chair, Sue O’Shea, said

“Generations of women have campaigned for equal pay. We want legislation that will support all women to enjoy their fundamental right to equal pay. This is an excitingopportunity “

This Bill builds on the landmark case taken by Kristine Bartlett and her union E tu and the unions who supported her, and is a once in a life time opportunity for New Zealand to again lead the way on equality for women and embed the right of working women to equal pay for work of equal value.

The PEC highlighted a number of improvements that could be made to the Bill to ensure the process of making and settling a pay equity is easy and accessible to all women, such as ensuring that all women have access to support and resources to bring a claim forward and the need for pay transparency in legislation to support women discovering and responding to pay inequities.

The submitters noted New Zealand’s commitments to equal pay under numerous United Nation Conventions and International Labour Organisation treaties which are binding obligations for the Government to uphold. Equal pay for work of equal value is a fundamental right and legislation will ensure and enforce that right.

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