Latest news with #wagegap
CTV News
22-05-2025
- Business
- CTV News
Durham Region Transit workers vote for strike mandate
A Durham Region Transit bus is seen in this undated photo (Unifor). Durham Region Transit (DRT) workers have voted 98 per cent in favour of strike action next month. In a news release on Thursday, Unifor says members working at DRT voted on Wednesday for strike action if a deal cannot be reached with the region by midnight on June 6. 'The region has a responsibility to invest in public transit and in the workers who uphold it, especially as the community continues to grow,' said Unifor National President Lana Payne in the release. Unifor Local 222 represents 616 transit workers—from operators to maintenance, dispatch, and specialized services. The union says one of the key issues they're negotiating is closing the gap on wages. 'Transit workers in surrounding '905-area code' municipalities with similar populations and growth projections, such as in Mississauga and Brampton, earn as much as $5 more an hour than their counterparts in Durham Region for the same work,' Unifor says. Last April, Durham Regional Council agreed to fully funding the 127 per cent growth Unifor said was needed for the transit system by 2032. But the union says since negotiations began on March 31, 'there has been little movement by the region to make good on its promise.' 'It's time to close the wage gap,' said Unifor Local 222 President Jeff Gray in the release. 'Our members deserve equal pay for equal work. Their skills and dedication to the job must be recognized in the next contract.' If the two sides cannot negotiate a new contract, Unifor members will be in a legal strike position on June 7 at 12:01 a.m.
RNZ News
13-05-2025
- Politics
- RNZ News
Pay equity claims: What they are and how they're changing
Protests against the changes last week in Dunedin as part of nationwide gatherings. Photo: RNZ / Tess Brunton Last week, the government made sudden and controversial changes to how pay equity claims can be made - sparking protest and fury . Not only did it bin dozens of existing claims from female-dominated workforces which considered themselves underpaid in comparison to those dominated by men, but it raised the bar for future claims to be successful. Workplace Relations Minister Brooke van Velden said under the previous rules, claims were "able to progress without strong evidence of undervaluation", or without proving the difference in pay was "due to sex-based discrimination or other factors". But what exactly is a pay equity claim? How do they work, and what thresholds do they have to meet to be successful? In 1961, the Government Service Equal Pay Act required government employees to be paid the same amount for the same work, regardless of whether they were men or women. It was followed by the Equal Pay Act 1972 , which extended that requirement to the private sector. However it was not until 2020's Equal Pay Amendment Act (which passed with unanimous support) that the concept of 'pay equity' became unambiguously part of the law - that work requiring similar levels of skill, responsibility and effort should be paid similarly, regardless of the workforce's gender makeup. "In certain occupations where the work is, or was, predominantly performed by women, wages have often been kept lower than occupations where the work has been performed predominantly by men," a document produced by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) and the Ministry for Women in 2020 said. Workplace Relations Minister Brooke van Velden. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone "Today's 'going market rate' for employing people in traditionally female dominated occupations may not be a fair or equal rate, but a suppressed wage due to historical and or current pay discrimination." The 2020 version of the Equal Pay Act outlined how employees who believed their remuneration had been suppressed due to discrimination could put forward a claim, whether individually or - more commonly - via a union. In order for a claim to be considered, the work had to be "that is currently, or that was historically, performed by a workforce of which approximately 60 percent or more members are female". Determining whether the work had been undervalued included factors such as its history, social and cultural factors, and whether it had been characterised as "women's work" or expected to have been done for free. Another consideration was if there had been past failures to "properly assess or consider" what that work was worth, taking into account "the nature of the work, the levels of responsibility associated, [working] conditions… and the degree of effort required". Once filed, an employer had 45 days to respond - either by accepting it was a pay equity claim and going into bargaining, or disputing it. Bargaining "involves an assessment of the work of the claimant and suitable comparator occupations" to find out what the claimants should be paid - whether that is what they are already on, or more. A "comparator" occupation is one which requires a similar level of skills, responsibility, experience and degree of effort required - and is used as a yard-stick for comparison during the claim. If a resolution cannot be reached between the parties, mediation is available. If this fails, the Employment Relations Authority can get involved to make a determination. A detailed outline is available on the MBIE site and another by the Public Service Commission . Kristine Bartlett. Photo: RNZ / Mei Heron In 2012, aged care worker and future New Zealander of the Year Kristine Bartlett and the and the Service and Food Workers Union (now part of E Tū) took legal action against Terranova Homes and Care. They argued its caregiver workforce - including a few men - were underpaid because their work was considered "women's work". They won the case, the first of its kind to be brought under the 1972 act, prompting the National-led government of the time to convene a working group to figure out how the law could be updated to achieve pay equity across all types of work. The resulting bill was highly criticised by unions, and thrown out when Labour formed a new government in 2017. After reconvening the working group, a new bill was introduced which brought pay equity claims into the existing bargaining framework, with court action only as a last resort. This became law in 2020. Then-Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter of the Green Party said it was about fixing the injustice of female-dominated workforces being paid less than male-dominated workforces to do work that requires a similar level of skill, effort and education". Some opposition MPs criticised the bill and its timing - as the country sought to recover economically from the first Covid-19 lockdown - but voted for it anyway. Since the change, the Public Service Commission says more than 100,000 employees "have had their pay corrected over multiple settlements in the public and publicly-funded sectors". These include school administration support staff, librarians, rest home workers , expert advisers in te reo, mental health and addiction support workers , mātauranga Māori and tikanga Māori, health workers, care and support workers, social workers and more. Some have received back pay , others increases in remuneration measured in double-digit percentages and improved benefits . There were 33 claims in progress when the law was abruptly changed last week, van Velden said, including at least 10 brought by the NZ Nurses Organisation . NZEI Te Riu Roa said its case , consolidated with one from the Post Primary Teachers' Association covering more than 90,000 people was the "largest ever pay equity claim" when it was launched in 2020, but was now "on the scrap heap" after four years and "huge amounts of work". Brooke van Velden Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver Van Velden said last week those claims would be stopped, and need to be refiled and judged against the new, stricter requirements. She said claims had been concentrated in the public sector, with costs to the Crown of settlements so far costing $1.78 billion a year. "These changes are better for all women who are working where we can genuinely say, hand on heart, that what they are finding with their claims is genuine gender-based discrimination." The changes brought in under urgency in the Equal Pay Amendment Act 2025, in the bill's own words, are: The measure for "predominantly female" has been shifted from 60 percent of workers to 70 percent, meaning fewer cases will qualify, although it's not clear yet which of the current 33 claims would be able to be restarted under that rule. Van Velden said the changes would not only make the pay equity scheme "workable and sustainable", but "significantly reduce costs to the Crown". "There are often significant costs involved with pay equity settlements which can involve large workforces… and we need to ensure the process to raise and resolve claims is robust." Much of the debate has focussed on which "comparators" (see the definition above) should be used for each job and whether unfair comparisons are being made between industries during claims. "You have librarians who've been comparing themselves to transport engineers," van Velden said . "We have admin and clerical staff at Health New Zealand comparing themselves to mechanical engineers." She said when possible, pay comparison would now be "between female employees and male employees at the same employer", and to similar employers if that was not possible. The Public Service Association said that would make it "impossible for people in female-dominated professions to be paid fairly". Labour spokesperson for jobs and incomes Ginny Andersen said the tightening of the definition of comparators would "limit the ability to compare women's work to better paid, male-dominated roles". "Gathering the stronger evidence now required, like historic wage data and independent job evaluations, will be expensive and more difficult to prove. Individual workers and small unions may not have the money or even the expertise to compile the sophisticated cases that are now needed to do this. They have made it harder for female workers to get the pay they deserve and that is unfair." Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said claims the government was "cutting pay for women" were incorrect. "Equal pay remains, no change. Pay parity remains, no change. Collective bargaining remains, no change. Settlements that have already happened under pay equity, no change."
CBC
10-05-2025
- Business
- CBC
How a new program is aiming to support women in skilled trades
A Canadian non-profit that focuses on housing and employment recently introduced its first-ever women's cohort. As CBC's Talia Ricci explains, the goal is to create more opportunities for women in skilled trades and close the wage gap.
Irish Times
08-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Three-quarters of large Irish companies have wage gaps in favour of men
Goodbody Stockbrokers , Cantor Fitzgerald, the Irish Aviation Authority and Uniphar's Allcare and Hickey's Pharmacy groups were among the 25 companies which reported the highest median hourly pay gap between men and women employees last year, according to data collected by Under the Gender Pay Gap Information Act , companies with more than 150 employees are required to create and publish a report outlining their gender pay gap across a number of metrics. Across the data for nearly 750 companies collected by approximately three-quarters of companies had a median hourly wage gap in favour of men with the largest disparity at Uniphar's Allcare Pharmacies of 60.4 per cent. Also among the five largest wage gaps was the Irish Aviation Authority, with a 54 per cent media pay gap, which, it said, 'primarily arises due to lower numbers of females in specialist aviation roles such as pilot and engineering roles, as well as low numbers in managerial roles such as accountable manager or nominated postholder roles.' READ MORE Goodbody Stockbrokers had a median hourly wage gap of 46.6 per cent, with its mean standing at 41.5 per cent. Goodbody said that 'fewer females than males continue to occupy the highest paid roles in the firm', with just 15 per cent of its highest paid quartile being women as opposed to 55 per cent of its lowest quartile. [ Gender pay gap increased at three government departments during 2024 Opens in new window ] The Irish wing of US investment group Cantor Fitzgerald had mean and median hourly pay gaps of more than 40 per cent, with women making up just 17 per cent of their top 25 per cent of earners despite making up 37 per cent of their total staff. Of the remaining companies, nearly 20 per cent reported a pay gap in favour of women, with the largest disparity in the Chief State Solicitor's Office which reported a pay gap of 40.18 per cent. The Economic & Social Research Institute found an average median pay gap of 30.9 per cent in favour of women, which it said 'reflects not just the higher proportion of females in senior roles but also the fact that pay scales are wider at senior levels.' Construction companies made up eight of the 15 companies with the lowest representation of women in the top 25 per cent of earners. Conversely, 12 of the 15 companies with the lowest representation of men in the lowest quartile of pay, are in the human health and social work activities sector, with women making up between 83.6 per cent and 96 per cent of the top earners. The data for nearly 750 companies was compiled from the individual reports by technology worker Jennifer Keane, founder of PayGap,ie, who said her experience of gender pay bias served as the motivation for the project. The project is the product of nearly 200 hours of work since the start of the year, she said, noting that, in her experience, nearly 15 per cent of the pay gap reports include errors or omissions. All organisations with more than 50 employees must also report on their gender pay gap for the first time this year and Ms Keane will look to expand her database when that happens, she said, noting that a State-run database for the information is due to launch this year.
