Council of Trade Unions take NZ's pay equity fight to international conference
Pay equity protestors voice their opinions outside Parliament on Budget day 2025.
Photo:
RNZ/Marika Khabazi
A representative from the Council of Trade Unions has taken New Zealand's pay equity fight to an international conference.
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) is a United Nations agency, which brings together workers, employers and governments to discuss work-related issues, and whose mandate is to advance social and economic justice by setting international labour standards.
Council of Trade Unions secretary Melissa Ansell-Bridges is at its annual conference in Geneva, Switzerland.
The coalition government announced in early May it would use urgency in Parliament to raise the threshold for proving work has been historically undervalued when making a pay equity claim.
Workplace
Minister Brooke van Velden said at the time
, claims had been able to progress without strong evidence of undervaluation, and some had been "very broad", where it was difficult to tell whether differences in pay were due to sex-based discrimination or something else.
The move cancelled 33 in-progress pay equity claims, and
saved the government billions of dollars
.
Ansell-Bridges told RNZ she spoke about the changes during her speech to the ILO plenary on Tuesday.
"It was important to inform the 187 member states that despite not being signalled in the last election, reforms to severely undermine the legislation were passed under urgency without any consultation with workers or their unions."
The issue had come too late to make it onto the agenda for the ILO's committee on the application of standards, which sat during the two-week conference.
"But that's definitely something that we'll be considering in advance of the conference next year," she said.
If a case ended up being heard by the committee - which operated on a triage system - it would then be able to make recommendations to governments on how to stay in alignment with agreed conventions.
Ansell-Bridges said the response from those international representatives who heard her speech had been one of warmth, support and surprise.
"Obviously we have this reputation of being quite a progressive and forward-thinking country that values equality, and so to hear that these kinds of changes are happening in New Zealand, people are very surprised."
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter
curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RNZ News
21 minutes ago
- RNZ News
Judge Ema Aitken's behaviour at NZ First event to be reviewed by Judicial Conduct Panel
Photo: RNZ Insight/Dan Cook The government has confirmed a Judicial Conduct Panel will look into the behaviour of Acting District Court judge Ema Aitken. She is accused of interrupting a New Zealand First function at the exclusive Northern Club in Auckland in November, allegedly saying leader Winston Peters was lying. She argues she did not recognise Mr Peters' voice and did not know it was a political event. The Judicial Conduct Commissioner in January recommended a panel be set up to look into the alleged misconduct. Judge Aitken challenged that recommendation through a judicial review - saying there was insufficient reason provided for a panel and it was unclear what the scope of its work would be measured against - but it failed . Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith will set up the panel to avoid any perception of bias by the Attorney-General Judith Collins. It will consist of two judges and a layperson, and will write a report on whether it would be justified to have Judge Aitken removed. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
23 minutes ago
- RNZ News
Fieldays boss says positive signs 2025 will beat last year in sales
Fieldays attendees scoping the tractors at Fieldays. Photo: Marika Khabazi Fieldays chief executive Richard Lindroos says early indications are that this year's event sales will top 2024. As many as 100,00 people are expected through the Southern Hemisphere's biggest agricultural event. And with still two days to go, including 'Super Saturday', Lindroos is confident 2025 will surpass last year's. "Yeah, I think so, there are really good early indications," he told Morning Report. "The thing about this event is .. it's just the scale and it's so massive here. Every supplier in the agribusiness field is here. We're just making sure we can give them the best visibility to get those sales, so really positive. "Everyone's coming through the gates now, streaming through. So, it's going to have another good day, and on Saturday, it's Super Saturday." That's when the more of the townies coming to town, he said. Two days in, Lindroos said the atmosphere at Mystery Creek had been great, and there had been no shortage of sentiment. He said was particularly pleased with the political "ceasefire" with opposing politicians supporting sector. "We've had a great few days halfway through. We're going to hit our targets in terms of crowd and we're just hoping we're going to hit our targets in terms of sales," Lindroos said. "There is a really good vibe here. You were here on Wednesday morning and hopefully you saw that as you walked around and probably the thing for me ... some announcements which were a part of what's happening in terms of the political scene. "We had the Field Day ceasefire where everyone was playing nicely and both major parties supporting agribusiness as we head to the future." Lindroos said it wasn't just the big capital items on sale, such as tractors or combine harvesters, but there had been queues out of the door for workwear as well. "We've got sunshine today, people streaming in. It's going to be another good day here," he said. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
30 minutes ago
- RNZ News
Whakatāne operators at war with council over tourism funding cuts
Eastern Bay tourism operators were able to attend the Trenz25 tourism expo held in Rotorua in May through Whakatāne District Council's links with Tourism Bay of Plenty. Photo: LDR / supplied Tourism operators across the district are boycotting Whakatāne District Council for cutting funding to Tourism Bay of Plenty. The Whakatāne council has previously contributed $85,000 annually to the council controlled organisation of Tauranga City and Western Bay District councils. In response, a group of tourism operators across the district are boycotting all council-led tourism activity. This includes directing that all of their businesses be removed from council websites, that brochures and experiences be removed from the Whakatane i-Site, refusing to participate in promotional campaigns, event partnerships, and famils (familiarisation trips for agents) and calling for a full independent audit of the Whakatāne i-site and council tourism department. Among the tourism operators supporting the boycott are Tio Ohiwa Harbour Cruises and Oyster Experience owner Wini Geddes, Kohutapu Lodge and Whirinaki Footsteps Nadine Toe Toe, Larni Hepi from Whaitaki, KG Kayaks' Kenny McCracken, Beachpoint Apartments' Alison Stern, One 88 On Commerce's Malcolm Glen, Awakeri Rail Adventures Paul Francis and Takutai Adventure Company's Ollie Dobbin. Geddes said that more than 44 tourism operators and accommodation providers from around the Eastern Bay of Plenty would be hurt by Whakatāne council withdrawing this funding. The contribution linked them to domestic and international tourism promotion through Tourism New Zealand and New Zealand Māori Tourism. The boycotters said the $85,000 amounted to 2.8 percent of the council's annual $3 million tourism budget and a mere 0.14 percent of its $59 million total annual operating budget. Quoting Stats NZ, they said the region received $166 million in visitor spend annually, with approximately $20 million of that from international visitors. More than 10 percent of the workforce in Eastern Bay was through tourism. Geddes said the decision had been made in public-excluded meetings with no consultation or communication with local tourist operators. "We've only known about it for a month and the decision was made before Christmas with no consultation with the tourist operators at all." She said all of Tio Ohiwa's business came through either Tourism Bay of Plenty or support from other Regional Tourism Operators around the country, in particular RotoruaNZ, a CCO of Rotorua Lakes District Council, which Whakatāne council did not pay into. "In two weeks' time our connection to Tourism New Zealand will be cancelled and [the council] are trying to take it over by themselves." A response from council chief executive Steven Perdia to a Local Goverment Official Information and Meetings Act request sent by two of the operators, Toe Toe and Hepi, said Whakatāne council had entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and funding agreement with Tourism Bay of Plenty in 2014, but since this had expired in 2019 no further MOU had been developed. The organisations had operated under a Letter of Intent to develop a revised MOU but "since the Whakaari eruption and Covid 19 and the catastrophic effects on the community and visitor economy with several business closures, both organisations have continued to work together in good faith". He said the council had a strong desire to reduce rates' increases and during last year's long-term plan budget funding was stopped to both economic development agency Toi EDA and Tourism Bay of Plenty. In a public-excluded section of its living together committee on 6 March this year, the council discussed reviewing the MOU with Tourism Bay of Plenty but to make cost savings decided to bring all tourism-related support in-house. Perdia told Local Democracy Reporting the matters were discussed in a public-excluded forum because the debate involved commercially sensitive matters, including contracts and funding agreements with third parties. "Council is trying to make itself a regional transport operator," Geddes said. "It has got no strategic plan, nothing, and they're expecting us to teach them how to get into the industry." Among the benefits of being part of Tourism Bay of Plenty was being included in the Bay of Plenty section of the Trenz Expo, New Zealand's biggest tourism trade show. "We are now taking bookings from China, India and the rest of Asia, Europe and the United States from those expos. Even our accomodation providers. We fill our hotels with tourists coming in. "[Whakatāne council] can't even get tickets to it." The council did not respond to questions from the Beacon around how it intended to promote the district to international tourists. Geddes said some tourism operators had already removed their brochures from the i-site. Toe Toe said the council shouldn't be making critical decisions in a field they didn't understand. "Tourism operators were completely left out in the cold around a decision that directly affects our businesses and survival." Stern, from Beachpoint Apartments, said she felt the decision was very shortsighted and would end up costing the council more in the long run. "If they don't want to focus on international tourism, then why are they planning to do exactly that - just without the professionals?" she said. "And how do they think they'll do it better for less than $85,000? This is going to end up costing the ratepayers more, not less." LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
