Suffrage Day.

On Tuesday 19 September 2023, we will honour Suffrage Day – this year it will be the 130th anniversary of the day women won the right to vote in Aotearoa.

Kaiwhakahaere | Organiser Jane Kostanich says “for Te Hautū Kahurangi | Tertiary Education Union, it’s important that we continue to fight for equality for our members in everything we do. That’s why, along with the PSA and TIASA, we have raised two separate multi-employer and multi-union claims under the Equal Pay Act 1972 for low paid library, clerical, and administration workers in the university sector.”

“As of last month, all Library and Clerical and Admin workers potentially covered by the claim have been notified – over 4,000 university workers so far.”

“The Universities have agreed there is an arguable claim. The parties are working constructively together and we are meeting regularly with representatives from all the Universities to progress this mahi.”

“The next steps in the process are to consolidate the hundreds of different job titles into similar categories and agree on the groups that will be evaluated. After that we will be looking for members to train on applying the assessment tool used for evaluating the mahi.”

While undertaking this work, TEU has produced a series of videos that will raise awareness of the claims with members and non-members covered by the claims. We will launch these videos on Suffrage Day, with events on university campuses across Aotearoa. Please look out for your local event and head along to learn more about this important mahi!