PAY EQUITY CLAIMS

SCHOOL LIBRARIANS AND LIBRARY ASSISTANTS PAY EQUITY CLAIMS

Librarians in schools and library assistants in public libraries are currently the subject of pay equity claims to ensure that they are receiving equitable remuneration for their work.

CLAIM RAISED BY NZEI TE RIU ROA ON BEHALF OF SCHOOL LIBRARIANS

On November 6, 2020, NZEI Te Riu Roa raised a pay equity claim for librarians and those people doing the same or similar work in state and stateintegrated schools in New Zealand. Terms of reference were signed in 2021 which set out the process for the Ministry of Education and NZEI to work together on this claim.

Current status of this pay equity claim

NZEI Te Riu Roa recently announced the next step in their pay equity claim for school librarians. The General Areas of Responsibility (GARS), the document that summarises all the knowledge, skills, and effort required in the mahi of school librarians, has been developed.

The GARS are important because they build a matrix to reflect the work that school librarians do and will eventually be used to determine each person’s grade and pay rate. The GARS compile the information gathered during the interviews conducted jointly by NZEI Te Riu Roa members and the Ministry Pay Equity team with school library staff in schools across the motu.

Workshops and consultations occurred over March this year to verify the GARS with school librarians. You can find out more about the status of the claim here:

■ https://campaigns.nzei.org.nz/pay-equity/

■ https://www.nzsta.org.nz/advice-andsupport/employment/pay-equity/librariansand-library-assistants-pay-equity-claim/

PSA PAY EQUITY CLAIM FOR LIBRARY ASSISTANTS

■ The average pay for a library assistant is about

$44,000 per annum or $21.15 per hour.

■ The adult minimum wage is $20.00 per hour

■ The living wage is $22.10

■ The gender pay gap in local government according to the 2019 PSA Mypay survey is

14.86%.

In May 2019 the PSA notified the six large urban councils that they believed library assistants working in local government suffered from illegal gender-based pay discrimination.

While this claim only pertains to library assistants, they believe that all local government workers who are working in female-dominated occupations are likely to suffer from gender-based pay discrimination. This includes other library workers, and administration and clerical workers. Their aim is to use equal pay settlements achieved in one occupation, or in another sector, to achieve equal pay across their membership.

The library assistant pay equity claim is currently in the assessment phase which includes planning for interviews and consideration of wider engagement via questionnaires and seeking confirmation of multi-employer process agreements. This assessment involves:

■ examining work of claimants (skills, responsibilities, conditions of work, efforts)

■ examining appropriate comparators

■ determining the extent of comparability

■ comparing remuneration

■ establishing the extent of undervaluation.

Follow the progress on this claim here: https:// www.psa.org.nz/psa/pay-equity-for-libraryassistants/

REMEMBER TO WEAR PURPLE THIS MAY 13 TO DRAW ATTENTION TO THESE PAY EQUITY CAMPAIGNS.