Pay equity changes an attack on women: NZNO

Changes by the Government to make pay equity claims harder to lodge and resolve are an attack on women, New Zealand Nurses Organisation Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa (NZNO) says.

Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke Van Velden today announced changes saying they will "significantly reduce costs to the Crown".

NZNO chief executive Paul Goulter says nurses will be outraged that historical gender discrimination will not be addressed so the Government can save money.

"This is a blatant and shameful attack on women.

"Women in workforces predominantly performed by female employees have been underpaid and undervalued for generations. That is what pay equity claims seek to rectify.

"This move by the Government will widen the pay gap between men and women," Paul Goulter says.

NZNO has at least 10 pay equity claims being progressed across branches of the health sector including Aged Care, Primary Health Care, Hospices, Plunket, Community Health and Laboratories covering many nurse and support worker roles.

Paul Goulter says some of these claims have been going on for years.

"Our members will be devastated that after years of waiting for settlements, the Government is now pulling the rug out from under their feet.

"This move is particularly unfair to primary health and aged care nurses who are being denied the opportunity to close the pay gap with their hospital counterparts. Our Plunket and hospice members now face the injustice of having to redo their pay equity claims," Paul Goulter says.