Protesters voice their concerns outside Parliament this week after the Government’s pay equity announcement, and more campaign action is planned for Friday. Photo / Marty Melville
Protesters voice their concerns outside Parliament this week after the Government’s pay equity announcement, and more campaign action is planned for Friday. Photo / Marty Melville
Act minister Brooke van Velden and several National MPs will face protests tomorrow as anger from union members grows after the Government’s changes to pay equity legislation.
It comes as union leaders promise the protest action is “just the beginning” of continued opposition to the changes that will occur “every single day between now and the election”.
The reforms, announced without warning on Tuesday, overhaul a 2020 law establishing a regime to allow people in sectors with a large female workforce to argue that they were underpaid relative to similar work done in sectors dominated by men.
The changes, passed under urgency yesterday, will be retrospective. All 33 current claims will cease and those claimants will need to reapply under the new regime.
The Herald confirmed with the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment there was no regulatory impact statement for the changes because of the tight timeframe.The Government is looking to do a post-implementation review of the changes, which will save it “billions” over the next few years in lower pay.
Many Opposition politicians joined protesters outside Parliament on Tuesday. Photo / Marty Melville
A snap protest, organised by impacted unions, appeared on Parliament’s forecourt on Tuesday afternoon, featuring hundreds of aggrieved members along with representatives of Opposition parties.
The bill passed late on Wednesday after it was introduced the day before.
Protest action led by several unions was set to continue in the coming days with van Velden’s Auckland office in St Johns a central focus tomorrow.
Several National ministers and MPs would also face protests outside their electorate offices, including Minister for Women Nicola Grigg in Christchurch, Tama Potaka in Hamilton, Scott Simpson in Thames, James Meager in Timaru, Penny Simmonds in Invercargill, Dana Kirkpatrick in Whakatāne, Suze Redmayne in Feilding, Mike Butterick in Masterton and Tim Costly in Levin and Paraparaumu.
Van Velden said she would not be at her Auckland office tomorrow, citing pre-arranged plans she would not depart from.
She endorsed people’s right to protest but encouraged any participants to show restraint, given her office was within a shopping mall.
“I hope that there’ll be respect from people from within the mall and the protesters allowing people just to go about their normal lives.”
Potaka, asked about the protest planned outside his office, welcomed it as “awesome” and said he would engage with any protesters if he was at his office at the time.
Finance Minister Nicola Willis is defending the reform. Photo / Marty Melville
National deputy leader Nicola Willis said the party hadn’t discussed how MPs should respond to the protests.
“The job that our MPs have to do is to get the real story out there ... they are clarifying that in fact women can continue to make claims for pay equity discrimination, that the Government as an employer will continue to fund settled claims, that we have not in any way taken away equal pay.
“I think those facts are very important, I don’t think they’re necessarily well understood by everyone at this point, and it’s our job to make sure that’s clear.”
Public Service Association national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons said her union had received an “outpouring of opposition” to the Government’s changes and promised protest would be ongoing.
“You will see protests at politicians’ offices, you will see protests at Parliament.
“We will be relentlessly opposing what this Government has done to pay equity every single day between now and the election. This is just the beginning.”
She claimed there were a number of “very high-profile New Zealanders” willing to support their campaign, but she wouldn’t name them.
Fitzsimons also referenced offers of support from lawyers regarding potential legal challenges to the Government’s reform.
“We are also concerned about inconsistency with New Zealand’s Bill of Rights Act, ILO [International Labour Organisation] conventions, as well as free trade agreements.
“All of those offer potential avenues for us to challenge this ... we will be leaving no stone unturned.”
Council of Trade Unions national secretary Melissa Ansell-Bridges said the shock of Tuesday’s announcement had worn off for some but has been replaced by anger.
“The depth of feeling around that is huge and it’s not going to go away, that is an enduring sense of injustice which people are going to be taking with them until it is fixed, it doesn’t go away on its own.”
She said the council hoped to host a “daughters, mothers and grandmothers” themed event at Parliament next week, aiming to portray how the fight for pay equity spanned multiple generations.
Ansell-Bridges encouraged those MPs facing protests to take the message back to their parties and call for the Government to reverse the changes.
“I suspect they’re going to find very soon that their electorates are furious at this.”
Adam Pearse is the Deputy Political Editor and part of the NZ Herald’s Press Gallery team based at Parliament in Wellington. He has worked for NZME since 2018, reporting for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei and the Herald in Auckland.
