Equal pay for all

We’re pushing for equal pay across our union with the launch of new claims in recent months.

Our union wide strategy can be seen in the raising of claims for NGO social workers and social services workers at five not-for-profit providers. We’re also pursuing our claim for library workers in local government.

These claims along with our claim for DHB admin workers could be a springboard for claims for women doing similar work in other sectors.

“Work undertaken for one claim to prove women have been undervalued, could be relevant to another. This would save us from having to start from scratch with each new claim.

“We are promoting ways to speed up the elimination of discrimination, and robust processes to identify it” says PSA National Secretary Kerry Davies.

SPREADING THE WORD

The PSA has partnered with the National Council of Women and other unions to encourage members to wear black and white for pay equity on Suffrage Day.

“It’s a way to take the pay equity message out into the community, beyond workers who are actively pursuing claims,” says PSA Equal Pay organiser Jo Taylor.

“We want to demonstrate public support for closing the gender pay gap and to encourage the government to speed up implementation.”

EQUAL PAY LAW

The PSA also continues to push for stronger legislation through the Equal Pay Amendment Bill.

We are advocating for the bill to remove obstacles to accessing the courts, put time limits on bargaining, and make sector wide, multi-employer settlements easier.

PSA PAY EQUITY CLAIMS

Settled:

• 2017 Care and Support workers
• 2018 Mental Health and Addiction support workers
• 2018 Oranga Tamariki social workers

In negotiation with employers:

• DHB admin/clerical workers - bargaining to start soon following the completion of interviews and data analysis
• DHB allied health workers - terms of reference being finalised
• DHB mental health nurses – 200 interviews being conducted across allDHBs
• Local Government Library Assistants – claim made to six big councils, terms of reference being exchanged
• NGO social workers and social service workers – letters sent to five employers raising pay equity claims

Under consideration:

• Administration and support workers across PSA