The Department of Labour’s Pay and Employment Equity Unit (PaEE) is to be disestablished, following an announcement yesterday by minister of labour, Kate Wilkinson. The unit will close on 30 June.

“Achieving the goal of closing that pay gap can’t be realised by having a singular focus on the state sector. This issue is the responsibility of all employers and good employers will work to tackle it,” says Ms Wilkinson. Her media statement made no mention of how she anticipated bad employers would react.

TEU women’s vice president Sandra Grey is extremely unhappy. “Currently there are 15 polytechnics and institutes of technology, 1 university and one wānanga all engaged in pay and employment equity reviews through the PaEE unit, many of them very near completion. Every review that has been done so far in the public sector has shown women being paid less than men for doing the same work. We anticipate that will be the case in the 17 tertiary education reviews too.”

CTU president Helen Kelly says the decision shows an absolute disregard for the thousands of women workers in this country whose work is undervalued simply because they are women.

“Women in New Zealand are paid on average at least 12 per cent less than men doing the same jobs. In the public sector the gap is as much as 35 per cent. This unit has been absolutely core to assisting… identify discriminatory employment practices and take steps to eliminate them.”

Dr Grey says that unions will continue the pay and employment equity work in the tertiary sector, even without the government.