The Equal Employment Opportunities (EEO) Commissioner and three former EEO Commissioners are calling for the release of the human rights analysis of the controversial equal pay amendments.

Saunoamaali’i Dr Karanina Sumeo, Dr Jackie Blue and Dame Judy McGregor say they support the current EEO Commissioner Professor Gail Pacheco’s concerns that the legislative overhaul will make claims more difficult. Professor Pacheco is concerned about the halt in progress on 33 current claims and the lack of consultation. Earlier in the week, she made a statement that said:

“The significant savings to the Government will come from the pockets of women working in jobs that are undervalued.

"It’s also concerning that the government is putting a stop to progress made to current claims that thousands of individuals have contributed to in good faith. Their hard work deserves to be respected, not undone.

“Our parliamentary processes are in place to protect democratic participation rights and should not be circumvented, especially on an issue like this which has significant consequences for so many people.”

The Cabinet paper accompanying the legislation had blanked out the human rights implications in a redacted section.

The former EEO Commissioners say that the public deserves to know the human rights consequences of the fast-tracked bill which was passed under urgency this week. “The use of urgency locked out both women and members of the public to have input on critical legislation that impacts on their jobs, their livelihoods, their families and breaches their rights.”

“Pay equity obligations are specified in various legally binding United Nation conventions to which New Zealand is a signatory, such as the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and in conventions on the rights of disabled people and racial discrimination. New Zealand has also signed up to International Labour Organization conventions on pay equity.

“As a country we regularly boast about being a human rights leader so we need to see how this could affect our reputation as well as how it affects women who deserve pay equity in good faith.

“The New Zealand Government has repeatedly promised the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) that it was making steady progress on implementing equal pay and pay equity.”

“In its last report to CEDAW the Government boasted about the effectiveness of the legislation it has now overturned. Women are worried about the human rights implications of making it harder to get pay equity,” the former Commissioners say.

The Ministry for Women told the CEDAW committee last year that the previous equal pay law had “introduced a practical and accessible process to raise and consider claims of systemic sex-based pay undervaluation in female-dominated occupations.”

The Ministry told CEDAW the changes had set out “a clear pay equity process to test whether work that is predominantly done by women is free from sex-based undervaluation.”

“Now that this practical, accessible and clear pay equity process has been abandoned, we need to know how women’s human rights will be protected. We need to see the advice that the Cabinet was given in the true spirit of transparency,” the former Commissioners say.

“Aotearoa New Zealand consistently tells the United Nations that it is proud of its leadership on gender equality in the international community. We now have to be honest that we are no longer first in class. We are alarmed that human rights implications were not disclosed or examined and regarded as insignificant.”

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