Read news releases and research items from our November 2019 newsletter.
Fair Pay Agreement (FPA) working group report goes to consultation
The Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment (MBIE) has released a consultation document, Designing a Fair Pay Agreements System, that follows on from a report delivered in December 2018 by the Jim Bolger-chaired working group. The consultation process is open until 27 November 2019. In this article John Ryall, a member of the FPA working group discusses the consultation document and its relationship to the working group's report.
The consultation document includes 98 questions about the details of a proposed system that would allow employer and worker representatives to set minimum employment standards across their industry or occupation. While the volume of questions posed in Designing a Fair Pay Agreements System will keep practitioners busy it the document does not make clear that many of the questions are asking for comment on options that the Bolger Report directly or indirectly rejected.
Research update: public servants and motivation
by Geoff Plimmer, Wonhyuk Cho, and Esme Franken, Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington.
According to a survey conducted by a group of Victoria University Wellington researchers, public servants are motivated to do their jobs and serve the public, but they face various barriers in their work. Many experience high work demands; many lack confidence in their ability; and some could be better supported by their managers. The survey of 893 Institute of Public Administration New Zealand (IPANZ) members carried out in February 2019, sought information on the challenges public sector organisations and their employees face and what organisations can do to help employees grow and develop in their jobs.
Time for gender pay transparency
Dr Amanda Reilly, Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington.
There is a fundamental inequality of bargaining power in employment relationships in New Zealand; generally employers know what each individual in the organisation is paid while their current and prospective employees do not.
Pay transparency is increasingly recognised as both effective and essential for the elimination of pay gaps. Indeed, the New Zealand government itself has recognised the need for pay transparency through the Gender Pay Principles which the Government recently agreed to following recommendations from the Gender Pay Principles Working Group.
