Row over equity ‘back pay’
BusinessNZ has criticised a ‘‘unilateral’’ move by the Government to allow for back pay in pay equity claims.
Earlier, government ministers contradicted each other over the inclusion of a clause in a new pay equity bill that could provide workers with up to six years’ back pay.
Workers in female-dominated professions would find it easier to claim fair pay under the Equal Pay Amendment Bill that has been introduced to Parliament on the 125th anniversary of women getting the vote, the Government has promised. Courts could back date pay equity claims under the legislation, though officials said that would ‘‘in general’’ only be to the time when a claim was first raised.
BusinessNZ said in a statement that it backed the recommendations of the Joint Pay Equity Working Group convened by both the previous and current governments.
But the Government had acted unilaterally and gone further than the working group had recommended by allowing the Employment Relations Authority and courts to award back pay, the business body said.
‘‘Back pay was not agreed to by the working group, whose members had agreed that this should be a matter for negotiation between employers and employees,’’ it said.
It warned back pay could ‘‘raise affordability and sustainability issues’’ for some businesses and result in more litigation.
Acting Minister for Women Eugenie Sage said the working group had adequately canvassed the issue of back pay.
But Workplace Relations Minister Iain Lees-Galloway corrected her, saying the Government had deliberately not asked the working group about the issue, acknowledging it was controversial.
‘‘We wanted the working group to focus on the matters that they could come to consensus on. It is then over to the Government to make decisions about the slightly trickier issues.’’
‘‘It is called showing leadership,’’ he later added.
The possibility of back pay gave parties the ‘‘clear incentive to get on with the job and to deal with pay equity claims’’ without dragging them out, LeesGalloway said.
He said BusinessNZ knew back pay was a ‘‘live issue’’ and accused the business body of ‘‘playing silly buggers’’. The right to back pay for pay equity claims already existed as a result of a court decision that pay equity claims were covered by the Equal Pay Act, and would be subject to ‘‘far greater limitations’’ under the new law.