Fact Sheet 15 : Women

This fact sheet was prepared for the July 2002 General Election campaign.

Progress made under the current Government

Unions campaigned strongly for the introduction of paid parental leave (PPL). The PPL scheme introduced by the Labour / Alliance Government will provide 12 weeks payment up to a maximum of $325 per week.

Union representatives on the Ministerial Equal Employment Opportuntiies (EEO) Advisory Group successfully called for the establishment of an EEO Commissioner within the Human Rights Commission.

This Commissioner is yet to be appointed but will have a broad overview of EEO issues, including a focus on pay equity. The Ministry of Women's Affairs has launched an initial discussion document on Next Steps Towards Pay Equity calling for public submissions by 30 November this year. That document explicitly notes the role of unions in this policy development and implementation.

The Labour / Alliance Government has allocated more money to early childhood education (including kohanga reo and Pacific language nests) and increased funding for out of school care and recreation. Working conditions and the ability to deliver quality care have also been enhanced, for example through returning kindergarten teachers to the State Sector Act and increased licensing and chartering of early childhood education providers.

What else needs to be done?

Development of the PPL legislation highlighted the difficulties in designing Government policies that adequately meet the needs of women in casual, temporary, seasonal or part-time work. A number of legislative changes would provide greater protection for these workers. These include:

- having continuity of employment, service, pay and conditions when work is contracted out or on the sale or transfer of a business
- ensuring portability of leave entitlements for casual and part-time workers
- extending the grounds on which discrimination is prohibited (under both the ERA and the Human Rights Act) to include discrimination "in the nature of employment". This would mean that part-time or temporary workers could not be offered inferior conditions to those in full-time or permanent work.
- tightening up the use of fixed term contracts, so that workers are assumed to be permanent unless there is a genuine reason why they cannot be.

There are extensive policy measures that would enhance women's ability to balance paid work with unpaid work (both family and community responsibilities) and leisure. Listed below are examples of possible initiatives, based on the three areas of concern in the CTU's Get a Life campaign:

- hours of work: maximum reasonable hours, the need for flexicurity (flexibility with security), secure part-time work
- leave entitlement: better domestic, family, bereavement, tangihanga and sick leave; 4 weeks annual leave; portability of leave entitlement especially for casual workers
- family friendly provisions: improved child and eldercare, the right to return to part-time work after PPL; improvements to PPL as outlined below.

If the new EEO Commissioner is to be effective, there needs to be enhanced and coordinated collection of EEO data within the broader state sector. The CTU supports the need for pay equity legislation, to comply with both ILO Convention 100 and the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

Government regulation, collective bargaining and unionisation are all crucial in order to close the gender pay gap, especially the widening disparities for Maori and Pacific women.

The Government's PPL legislation falls short of minimum standards set up the International Labour Organisation (ILO). In order to comply with the ILO Maternity Protection Convention 183 the Government would need to extend the length of PPL to 14 weeks, increase the level of payment so that all workers received at least two-thirds of their previous earnings and introduce paid breastfeeding breaks. In addition, eligibility criteria would have to be widened to include causal, seasonal, temporary and part-time workers. The Government has announced a review of this legislation in 2003, which could also investigate funding mechanisms for PPL, including the option of an employer levy.

Occupational Overuse Syndrome (OOS) is a major issue for many women workers. The Injury Prevention, Rehabilitation, and Compensation Act does not improve access to cover for those with OOS, which comes within the category of personal injury caused by work-related gradual process, disease or infection.

However there is a new provision under section 31 for a Ministerial advisory panel to provide independent and specialist advice on how ACC deals with these claims. The advisory panel's work should also include an assessment of any further policy or legislative changes needed to ensure the effective prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and compensation for OOS and other gradual process conditions.

What could be lost under a National/Act Government?

National remain opposed to all but a voluntarist approach to either EEO or pay equity on the grounds that "compulsory mechanisms to achieve 'equality' and feminist agendas . . . could in reality mean less employment for women because of increased costs to businesses, and a backlash from a disgruntled male counter-reaction." Even National's support for voluntary pay equity initiatives focuses extremely narrowly on encouraging "equal pay for performance of the same work by individuals in the same enterprise with the same skills and experience". National opposes any consideration of an employer levy to fund paid parental leave.