Media Release
21 May 2009

Govt prepares for embarrassment on world stage

The New Zealand government is preparing to explain to an international forum why it intends to move backwards on women’s rights at work.

An official New Zealand delegation, including the Minister of Labour, Kate Wilkinson, is preparing to attend next month’s International Labour Organisation (ILO) discussion in Geneva on ‘gender equality at the heart of decent work’ (3-19 June). The discussion, which is to take place during the ILO’s annual International Labour Conference, will put New Zealand’s decision to scrap its Pay and Employment Equity Unit under international scrutiny.

The ILO is a specialised agency of the United Nations and devotes itself to ‘advancing opportunities for women and men to obtain decent and productive work in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity’. Each member state is represented by a delegation consisting of government delegates, employer delegates, and worker delegates, and their respective advisers. This year the worker delegate to the gender equality discussion is TEU deputy secretary Nanette Cormack.

Ms Cormack says it is hard to know what the officials could say when asked to explain the government’s recent decision.

“They did have a structured plan of action to address gender employment inequality and pay gaps between men and women and they were working towards implementing that plan. Now they do not.”

“Countries around the world are all at different places on their climb towards gender equality. Some are higher than others. But it’s very rare for a country to start heading down the ladder rather than up. And it’s extremely embarrassing that New Zealand should be in this position.”

ENDS

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