{"id":78345,"date":"2025-05-06T05:37:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T05:37:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/78345\/"},"modified":"2025-05-06T05:37:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T05:37:09","slug":"overhaul-of-equal-pay-legislation-is-halting-progress-equal-employment-opportunities-commissioner-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/78345\/","title":{"rendered":"Overhaul of equal pay legislation is halting progress, Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/4LV95PP_copyright_image_288604\" width=\"1050\" height=\"698\" alt=\"gender equality concept on wooden cubes. Concepts of gender equality. Hand flip wooden cube with symbol unequal change to equal sign. white background\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"photo-captioned__information\">\nThe government says settlements had cost the Crown $1.78 billion dollars a year.<br \/>\nPhoto: 123rf\n<\/p>\n<p>The Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner says she has serious concerns about the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/news\/political\/560069\/government-halts-all-current-pay-equity-claims-makes-it-harder-to-lodge-new-ones\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">proposed overhaul of equal pay law<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The government is planning to limit the scope of pay equity claims and raise the threshold of proof, making it harder to prove a job has been historically undervalued.<\/p>\n<p>It said settlements had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/news\/political\/560101\/pay-equity-legislation-could-save-billions-for-government-pm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">cost the Crown<\/a> $1.78 billion dollars a year.<\/p>\n<p>The Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner Gail Pacheco said any savings for the government would come from the pockets of women working in jobs that were undervalued.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/4LL4HLO_Prof_Gail_Pacheco_jpg\" width=\"1050\" height=\"700\" alt=\"Professor Gail Pacheco\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"photo-captioned__information\">\nEqual Employment Opportunities Commissioner Gail Pacheco.<br \/>\nPhoto: Supplied\n<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s also concerning that the government is putting a stop to progress made to current claims that thousands of individuals have contributed to in good faith.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Their hard work deserves to be respected, not undone,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>This included current claims from teachers, residential support workers, psychologists, education advisors, vet nurses, service managers and administration and clerical workers.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As Kiwis we believe in giving everyone a fair go. That includes making sure people working in jobs dominated by women are paid fairly and valued for their work.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Professor Pacheco said making these changes under urgency didn&#8217;t allow for appropriate consultation with affected groups, and that the changes conflicted with government obligations under Te Tiriti o Waitangi, such as taking proactive steps to address pay disparities and promote equitable outcomes for M\u0101ori.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/radionz.us6.list-manage.com\/subscribe?u=211a938dcf3e634ba2427dde9&amp;id=b3d362e693\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, <b>a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The government says settlements had cost the Crown $1.78 billion dollars a year. Photo: 123rf The Equal Employment&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78346,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3092],"tags":[1816,51,9409,897,12,196,10975,10973,10974,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-78345","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jobs","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-current-affairs","11":"tag-jobs","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-podcasts","14":"tag-public-radio","15":"tag-radio-new-zealand","16":"tag-rnz","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114459277280236019","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}