Categories: News

NZEI supports moves to lift women’s pay rates

&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;" alignright size-full wp-image-1850" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;schoolnewsnz&period;fastrackdev&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;10&sol;SND20-wk3-NZEI&lowbar;logo-new&period;jpg" alt&equals;"SND20-wk3-NZEI logo-new" style&equals;"margin&colon; 5px&semi; float&colon; right&semi;" width&equals;"200" height&equals;"150" &sol;>NZEI is welcoming the Government&&num;8217&semi;s decision to begin negotiations over equal pay for women&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p> <&excl;--more--> <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The government is to set up a Joint Working Group with unions&comma; including NZEI&comma; and employers to develop agreed principles to guide lifting the pay for women working in education support&comma; aged care and other female dominated occupations&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;We believe this is a significant step forward in ensuring that thousands of women will finally get paid fairly&comma;&&num;8221&semi; NZEI national president Louise Green says&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Last week NZEI lodged a claim with the Employment Relations Authority on behalf of three education support workers&period; They earn an estimated &dollar;8 an hour less than a comparable male-dominated job&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;We look forward to working with the government to help put an end to discrimination against women who are underpaid simply because they are in workforces that are primarily female&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>More than six years ago the Department of Labour&&num;8217&semi;s Pay and Employment Equity Unit found that education support staff were paid significantly less than a comparable male-dominated job&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The unit was disestablished by the current Government in 2009&comma; but a number of pay equity cases filed by unions&comma; notably the Terranova Aged Care case&comma; have continued to advance the campaign for equal pay&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;We are very confident our rights under the law are secure but have always believed that negotiating a way forward is a sensible approach&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>However&comma; Louise Green says NZEI will pursue the case for education support workers through the Employment Court if progress is not made through the Working Group&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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Rosie Clarke

Rosie is the managing editor here at Multimedia Pty Ltd, working across School News New Zealand and School News Australia. She has spent 10+ years in B2B journalism, and has spent some time over the last couple of years teaching as a sessional academic. Feel free to contact her at any time with editorial or magazine content enquiries.

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