New Zealand Government Speech on the Global Report - Time For Equality At Work

13 June 2003

President, I would like to congratulate you on your election to this office. The New Zealand Minister of Labour, the Honourable Margaret Wilson, has asked me to offer her greetings and express her regret that she could not remain here to present this speech.

New Zealand commends the ILO for bringing the problems associated with discrimination in the world of work into the international spotlight and for highlighting the important links between discrimination and poverty.

The New Zealand Government is committed to ensuring that the real advantages of an increasingly diverse workforce are recognised and maximised by both employers and employees in our country. In this the Government strongly supports the ILO in calling for national frameworks of labour market processes and institutions that address equality concerns on a continuous and structured basis and national institutions dedicated to promoting and monitoring equality (para 365).

At the national level my Government is putting in place comprehensive mechanisms to ensure the elimination of discrimination. The Human Rights Act and the Employment Relations Act are the foundations of our legislative framework in this regard, and in particular collective bargaining is considered an important means of achieving equality. The newly established Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner, the Disability Strategy and the Human Rights National Plan of Action are but a few of the ongoing national initiatives dedicated to promoting and monitoring equality.

My government applauds the ILO for its proactive stance on ensuring women workers' right to work and equal pay is a global priority. There has also been significant focus in New Zealand on issues relating to equal pay for work of equal value. The New Zealand Government has recently established a Pay and Employment Equity Taskforce that will progress pay and employment equity between women and men in the public service, and in the public health and education sectors. The Taskforce will analyse how factors influencing pay and employment equity apply to those sectors and develop a five-year plan of action to address them. The lessons learned can then be applied in moving the issue forward on a wider basis.

The information in this report in relation to equal pay for work of equal value is timely and will be helpful in terms of assisting both the Government and the Taskforce in considering these issues in the light of international experience.

I would particularly like to acknowledge the valuable contribution that our social partners play in ensuring that individuals and groups are treated equally in our labour market. Not only do Business New Zealand and the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions provide advice and input to ongoing Government processes but they also have a series of successful initiatives that complement the Government's work in this area.

My Government would like to stress the importance of such partnerships to ensuring decent work is achieved, not just within New Zealand, but internationally. New Zealand particularly values its partnership with the International Labour Organisation. We share the Director General's vision of Fundamental Rights at Work and have ratified both ILO Conventions 100 and 111 on equal remuneration and the elimination of discrimination.

New Zealand was pleased to see the acknowledgement in paragraph 367 that the International Labour Organisation is considering the establishment of a single facility that would coordinate activity aimed at achieving equality at work both within the ILO and between institutions. New Zealand would value the ILO's contribution to ensuring that states are able to share best practices in developing and maintaining institutional frameworks dedicated to promoting and monitoring equality.

We wonder however whether the Organisation's Policy Integration Department, which already plays a key coordination role within the ILO, might not usefully take on the functions outlined in paragraph 367. In addition we urge the ILO to develop stronger communication and coordination structures between headquarters and the field, and between the field and members, to support this area of ILO activity.