Pay Equity Snap Panel hosted by the Wellington Socialist Society

The National-led coalition’s shock gutting of pay equity legislation, passed under urgency just days after being announced, has taken woman workers back decades. The new legislation goes well beyond repealing the 2020 amendments to the Equal Pay Act of 1972: in a number of important respects, it takes women back to the 1970s.

In 2012, Kristine Bartlett, an aged-care worker from Lower Hutt, lodged a claim with the Employment Relations Authority that she was not receiving equal pay as per the Equal Pay Act of 1972. In 2017, a landmark court settlement was reached which raised wages for workers in the female-dominated residential aged care, disability support, and home support industries. Prior to Bartlett’s case, the Act had only been used to assess claims that men and women were being paid unequally for similar work within the same workplace. The court found the Act allowed claims that female-dominated work was being underpaid in comparison to substantially similar jobs in different industries. In response, the Labour government introduced amendments to the Equal Pay Act in 2020 which enshrined the principles of the Bartlett settlement. It passed with virtually unanimous support, including from National and NZ First – who have just turned-coat to plug a self-inflicted budget shortfall and to appease the extremist ACT Party.

This panel, hosted by the Wellington Socialist Society, will discuss the history of the struggle for pay equity in Aotearoa New Zealand, what the government’s radical reforms of pay equity legislation mean for women today, and how we should organise to fight against these changes.

Our panelists are:

Erin Polaczuk – Former Acting Secretary for the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions. Erin has worked in and alongside unions in the private and public sector over the last 20 years, and served more than seven years as a National Secretary for PSA Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi, following time as a Deputy General Secretary for PPTA.

Therese O’Connell – Long time equal pay and pay equity activist. Therese has been involved since the early 1970s in the women’s & union movement.

Clare Preston – Secondary school teacher of history and social studies, member of PPTA executive for Wellington-Malborough, pay equity advocate and scribe for the data-gathering process as part of the now-scrapped pay equity regime. Clare is also a member of Teachers for Palestine Aotearoa and author of the 2024 conference paper ‘Peace is Union Business’.
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Event Proceedings:
6:00 pm – Doors Open
6:30 pm – Introductions
6:40 pm – Panel discussion with Erin, Therese, and Clare
7:20 pm – Intermission
7:30 pm – Audience Q&A

For those unable to attend we will have a live-stream on the Wellington Socialist Society Facebook page.

Drinks and food will be available to order from the bar. As always, we are thankful to Bedlam & Squalor for hosting us.