The delayed pay equity settlement is facing the expiry of the act giving financial protections to carers
Protracted negotiations to form the next government is a difficult prospect for health workers facing the expiry of their pay equity settlement on December 31.
Though a significant pay equity settlement was agreed to yesterday, delivering a 20 percent salary increase for 16,000 allied, public health, scientific, and technical health workers, a substantive care and support worker case is stalled.
Earlier this month, Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand called for a review of work underpinning the settlement, which has been rolling since July 2022.
READ MORE: * Clock ticks for care and support pay equity deal * Nursing school fears extended purgatory * Damning report into rest-home closure
At the time, Public Service Association assistant secretary Melissa Woolley said it created an urgent situation, with the Care and Support Workers Pay Equity Settlement Act due to end on December 31 with no assurance of how its protections would be maintained.
The act was introduced after a pay equity deal was reached in 2017 to rectify the chronic underinvestment in the predominately female care and support workforce.
However, the agreement included a provision a new claim could not be brought for five years.
The Ministry of Health offered a 3 percent pay rise in lieu of a new pay equity claim, but this was rejected and a new claim was filed in July 2022, with the act extended until December 31, 2023 to allow for the new claim with the addition of a temporary three percent pay rise.
Urgent work
If it expires without a replacement or settlement in place, wages in the care sector would lose the wage increase protections benefited from for six years, but the claim itself would not expire.
Yesterday the Public Service Association’s national health lead Sue McCullough called for urgent work to progress the claim. “The new Government must continue unsettled pay equity processes with haste to ensure all health workers are paid fairly.”
Ratified documents with detailed costings need to go to Cabinet for approval before being enacted.
Speaking to Newsroom, Woolley said it was a source of anxiety that there was the prospect of a new government not being formed in time to give direction on the future of the act and uphold the base wage increases that it funds.
“Workers are struggling now, some have received a small pay increase this year, some haven’t, and a lot of New Zealand’s 65,000 support workers are on the minimum wage.”
She said workers were actively considering moving into other, better-paying sectors. “These are very skilled care and support workers who in 2017 were five or six dollars above the minimum wage, and now facing going back on the minimum wage. That's quite disappointing to be honest.”
Political support
National campaigned on a few pro-employer points such as doing away with fair pay agreements and reinstating 90-day trials but, answering a Public Service Association survey before the election, National said it supported the pay equity process.
It committed to progressing current claims, but wouldn’t commit to settling current claims, saying it would be irresponsible to pre-commit to an outcome while negotiations were underway.
Despite support for pay equity, the actual formation of a government capable of making any changes or extensions before the cut-off date hinges on the outcome of the special votes in early November.
Those votes will determine whether National and Act will cut a deal with New Zealand First, with lengthy negotiations with Winston Peters always a possibility.
Until Prime Minister-elect Christopher Luxon can form a government, his only locked-in portfolio is Nicola Willis as Finance Minister, and no Health Minister for his cabinet has been announced, though presumably it will be Dr Shane Reti.
