Source: Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi
New report from PSA calls on next Govt. to settle claim within first 100 days
The PSA is demanding whoever forms the next Government make settling the care and support workers’ pay equity claim an immediate priority and repeal the outrageous changes to pay equity law.
The call comes in a new report – Voices of Pay Equity Lost – authored by Professor Katherine Ravenswood and Emma Hitchcock from AUT.
The report launched at Parliament today tells the personal stories of eight care and support workers whose pay equity claim – along with 32 other pay equity claims – was cancelled when the Government gutted the Equal Pay Act under urgency last year, in less than a day, with no consultation and no warning.
“This was constitutional vandalism, depriving 65,000 care and support workers and so many others of the pay rise they need all because the Government chose landlords over care and support workers,” said Fleur Fitzsimons, PSA National Secretary for the Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi.
“Every day their claim sits unsettled costs them real money – for petrol, for heating, for a deposit on a house. It’s the difference between scraping by and building a future. Care and support workers deserved better than to have years of hard-won progress wiped out in an afternoon.”
With the election just weeks away, the PSA is calling on the next Government to:
- Fund and deliver the pay equity settlement for care and support workers, based on established undervaluation, within its first 100 days.
- Repeal the 2025 changes to the Equal Pay Act, reinstating legislation that gives New Zealand women genuine access to pay equity and restore the cancelled claims and reviews.
- End pay gaps based on ethnicity, disability, sexuality and gender identity.
The report includes support worker Christie Cox, from Christchurch, who said the cancelled settlement had cost her family nearly $30,000 so far in lost income. “That’s a deposit on a house, that’s financial security, some stability for me to be able to actually start my family,” she said.
“This Government chose to sacrifice low-paid women like Christie to make its numbers work – the next one must choose to undo that,” Fitzsimons said.
“And there are good economic reasons to do so. Our analysis based on Treasury’s own economic model shows that reinstating pay equity would grow the economy by $13.5 billion over four years and create around 13,000 jobs.”
The PSA and other unions challenged the Government’s decision at the High Court on the basis it breached the Bill of Rights Act. They are now awaiting a decision after the case concluded last month.
“Win or lose that case, we need concrete political steps to overturn this appalling decision,” said Fitzsimons.
“On 7 November, we urge New Zealanders to choose a new government which commits to delivering pay equity, without delay or excuse.”
Voices of Pay Equity Lost launch details
- Parliament, Legislative Council Chamber
- Wednesday 16 September 2026
- 11am – 12pm
- The event features a panel discussion chaired by Fleur Fitzsimons with care and support workers Christie Cox, Kate Halsall, Camella Ross and Dev Deep Singh.
- The report was written by Professor Katherine Ravenswood and Emma Hitchcock of the AUT Social Transformation Research Institute.
PSA analysis on fiscal and economic benefits of pay equity
9 September Restoring pay equity would boost income of 91,000 families by $300/week – PSA analysis
23 August Govt’s axing of pay equity cost jobs & GDP growth – PSA analysis
The Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi is Aotearoa New Zealand’s largest trade union, representing and supporting more than 95,000 workers across central government, state-owned enterprises, local councils, health boards and community groups.