Pay equity workshops engaging and useful.

Te Hautū Kahurangi | Tertiary Education Union has been running a highly successful series of pay equity workshops on university campuses up and down the country, with more to come.

Last year, along with the PSA and TIASA, we raised two separate multi-employer and multi-union claims under the Equal Pay Act 1972 for low paid and undervalued library, clerical, and administration workers in the university sector.

The workshops are intended to encourage university staff covered by the claims to talk about what they really do, whether it’s captured by their job descriptions or not. This will enable us to document a more accurate picture of the work, which will in turn assist us and the employer parties with the pay equity claims.

Kaiwhakahaere | Organiser Jane Kostanich says the workshops held so far have been overwhelmingly successful. “We’ve seen high attendance from both TEU members and non-members, and we have gathered some extremely useful information. It’s been particularly wonderful to see how engaged attendees have been.”

“The conversations have been great, and participants have been reluctant to leave at the end of the scheduled times! They seem to love the opportunities to talk about their jobs and what they do in a meaningful way and being heard.”

The workshops got underway a fortnight ago and will continue until the end of April. If you believe you are covered by the pay equity claims and haven’t been invited to a workshop, you can get in touch with Jane by emailing her via jane.kostanich@teu.ac.nz.