Unions take pay equity fight to the International Labour Organisation

Contentious changes to New Zealand’s pay equity law have been raised with the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

Council of Trade Unions secretary Melissa Ansell-Bridges told the annual ILO conference in Geneva this week it was essential for the international community to know that Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s government had abandoned what was “world-leading pay equity legislation”. It was also important to inform the ILO’s 187 member states that despite not being signalled before the last election, reforms to “severely undermine the legislation” were passed under urgency without any consultation with workers or their unions.

In May, the government used urgency to pass legislation raising the threshold for making a pay equity claim, with the effect of cancelling 33 active claims. It was revealed in the Budget later that month that the changes will save taxpayers $12 billion over the next four years.

Ansell-Bridges said the government’s focus should have been to address pay equity issues rather than trying to save money. She said the claims belonged to 180,000 workers – mostly women. “Some of the most vulnerable and lowest paid workers in New Zealand had their claims cancelled and years of work thrown away.”