Care and Support Workers (Pay Equity) Settlement - Budget 2017 Information Release

On 18 April 2017 the Government announced a $2 billion pay equity settlement for 55,000 care and support workers in New Zealand’s aged and disability residential care and home and community support services.

The settlement originates from the TerraNova pay equity claim brought by E tū (previously the Service and Food Workers Union) on behalf of care worker Kristine Bartlett.  A unique feature of the case was that there was systemic undervaluation of care and support work because it was mainly performed by women. The case did not need to be decided by the court because of the Government's decision to seek to resolve the case out of the courts.  The five-year settlement begins from 1 July 2017.  Decisions were made in parallel with the main budget process.

Relevant documents covering the period from 20 July 2016 to 11 May 2017 are available here.

See Information Withheld from Documents on the Budget 2017 Information Release home page, or the cover page in each PDF file, for an explanation of why deletions may have been made to some of these documents.