An Article by Socialist Aotearoa member Melissa.

The speed with which the Equal Pay Amendment Act was rushed through under urgency provisions in Parliament to avoid public scrutiny has backfired. There have been widespread vocal protests in solidarity with low paid workers across Aotearoa since the government decided to act without consultation and push through the amendment. The changes introduced will disadvantage those workers in female-dominated professions such as social workers, librarians, teachers, nurses, allied health workers and many others by raising the threshold for defining a female-dominated workforce from 60% to 70% so that fewer will qualify for pay equity claims.

With complete disregard for workers who have ongoing pay equity claims, the government has cancelled 33 of these in what has been described as a constitutional overreach affecting thousands of workers.

There is now a stricter requirement for evidence that pay has been historically undervalued due to gender discrimination. There are also limited comparisons for pay equity as the government has decided that previous comparisons between male-dominated and female – dominated professions were too broad.

Workers who do succeed in proving pay inequity will no longer receive back pay for past wage disparities so these employees will receive reduced compensation as a result. There will no longer be reviews and adjustments to previously settled pay equity claims to keep them on a par with their male-dominated counterparts.

These changes will disproportionately impact Māori and Pasifika women in lower paid work.

This represents yet another attack on workers in traditionally female-dominated work such as care work. This is part of a broader strategy which can be seen by examining the impacts on healthcare workers of all kinds. The government is already undermining healthcare so that it can move further towards privatisation. The Government has been attempting to hide the scale of the  crisis in mental health services with the official report to the Minister for Health having removed the shocking numbers of shortages in front line mental health and addiction workers as well as specialist nurses, psychiatrists and clinical psychologists. This shows us the betrayal by those in power who campaigned on healthcare promising to improve access  and cut red tape which is often onerous for those involved in caring professions. The government was able to entice voters who were desperate for improvements in the health system, all the while aiming to undermine it.

It is clear that their agenda is fund tax cuts for wealthy donors and to make low paid workers pay for them. It is vital to keep the pressure up and push back against these anti worker policies and show how much we value this essential work.