Fronting up to pay equity issues.

IT IS high time for pay and employment equity. The opportunity to close the gender pay gap has arrived and there's pressure from several directions--including nurses--to see the process through.

The Government has set up a Pay and Employment Equity Taskforce of unions and employers to develop an action plan to achieve pay equity for the state sector. It is considering pay equity in three specific areas--public health, education and the public service.

Government is looking to play a leading role as an employer in terms of pay and employment equity and that's good news for many nurses employed in public hospitals.

It is heartening for me to see this opportunity. During nay years in the trade union movement, I have worked with nurses and am aware of how they are undervalued. I've been an industrial advisory officer for NZNO and was also employed in Britain as a researcher at the Royal College of Nursing. So I know that getting fair pay for nurses is critical and, for me, will also be personally very satisfying.

Basically, pay equity means women receive the same pay as men:

[] for the same work and

[] for different work that is of equal value.

On average, women earn 16 percent less than men. The Department of Labour says up to 40 percent of this gap is because of the differences in the jobs men and women do. The pay gap is worse for Maori and Pacific people. (1)

Unions are already confronting pay and employment equity issues, such as women starting on lower rates of pay than men, not having access to the same terms and conditions, and facing discrimination when they return from maternity leave.

Attacks on workers' rights to collective bargaining have increased gender pay gaps. While pay equity has always been an issue for women, the problem was exacerbated under the Employment Contracts Act, which sought to destroy collective bargaining.

The International Labour Organisation's recent global report on discrimination shows that collective bargaining strengthens equality and pay equity. In other words, building strong unions, including NZNO's multi employer collective agreement campaign, is an essential part of a pay equity strategy. Pay equity is a core union issue and unions are seeking fair pay through collective bargaining and industrial campaigns.

In the present Employment Relations Act review, the Council of Trade Unions (CTU) will be pressing for collective bargaining to be strengthened.

The Pay and Employment Equity Taskforce is required to report back to Government by December 1. The CTU representatives, who include myself, Laila Harre from NZNO, Lynn Middleton from the Public Service Association and Helen Kelly from the Association of University Staff, will be pushing for action on pay equity, including ongoing budget commitments to close the gender pay gap. NZNO will play a key role in the taskforce through Harre, representing a huge number of women workers in the public health sector.

NZNO has also been an active member of the CTU's own pay equity taskforce, highlighting the concerns of members in both the public and private sectors. This working group will continue to maintain that focus on the rights of all workers to fair pay.

Nurses are sick of the wage gap between nursing and other professional groups. NZNO research shows registered staff nurses are paid from $7000 to $19,000 less each year than other state sector professionals and nurses overseas. (2)

There are huge recruitment and retention issues for many female-intensive professions including nurses, teachers, social workers and caregivers. If we want high quality health and education services, we need to value the workers providing those services.

It's disappointing the employers' umbrella organisation Business New Zealand has been negative about the taskforce. This is about resolving discrimination, as we are all committed to do under international law. A pay and employment equity action plan developed by the taskforce for the public service is likely to have an effect on the private sector. And we should welcome that, because all women workers should be paid fairly for the work they do--no matter who employs them.

Nurses are a good example of this. Pay increases for public hospital nurses will put pressure on private health providers such as nursing homes and doctors' practices, to also put up their wages.

Business New Zealand says the pay gap is not caused by discrimination, but by women's choices--mostly their choice of training and career. I disagree. We may choose our profession, but we don't choose to be undervalued in it.

Business New Zealand says the pay gap is all about scarcity--pay will go up naturally to attract trained workers in occupations where there is a labour shortage. NZNO members, whether they are nurses, midwives or caregivers, know, from first-hand experience, this is not always the case.

Nurses are a classic example of what the pay equity issue is about, and the CTU supports NZNO's campaign for fair pay for nurses and midwives to more accurately reflect the value of nurses' work.

REFERENCES

1) NZNO (2003) Backgrounder: New Zealand Nurse and Midwife Pay. March 2003. Wellington: Author.

2) Dixon, S. (2001) Pay Inequality Between Men and Women in New Zealand. Wellington: Department of Labour.

--Carol Beaumont is the newly appointed secretary of the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions (CTU). NZNO is one of 34 CTU-affiliated unions.