clearly deserving to this settlement
July. These women deserve this pay increase.
Ria Bond. I'm actually quite pleased to rise on behalf of New
Zealand First and take the House
committee's stage of the calls with the
Care and Support Worker (Pay
Equity) Settlement Bill. Mr Chair,
while we
in get our head around some of the challenging aspects of some of the
clauses through the sector, we
did, in the second reading, acknowledge
the hard work and
the times that we had to take the bill
the hard work and the times that we
come back to the advisors as well. For me sitting there, it
was quite reassuring that we, I think, had the
best advisors that we could
possibly have had. I think that that
was really good. I want to address some
of the comments that the
Minister made in his address today. It
was quite good, actually, that the
Minister had agreed to amend some of
the sticky situations that could
have seen employers and
employees in positions that
positions that were unintended. I think it was really good that he
addressed those messages, especially
particularly around the contingency
fund for funding provided
for care workers. It was equivalent,
I think he said, to two days. I want
to mention about the fact that, when
I looked at the title of this bill
and I saw the
looked at the title of this bill and
throw me, Mr Chair. I sat there and I did seek the advice of
the advisors as
I did seek the advice of the
the it related back to the historical Equal Pay Act 1972
which subsequently saw some court
proceedings take place, Mr Chair. I
kind of thought to
myself, although I do acknowledge and accept the
explanation, I want to bring
it back that this bill specifically is about
a settlement agreement that will
be in place and take effect on 1
July that will have pay attached to that
with care qualifications for
the care and support workers' sector. I
want to again say that I don't
be inside of the title because, in the original
the original settlement agreement, it's quite evident through there
with reading it that
this bill, particularly, is not
about pay equity. I want to touch on
some areas, Mr Chair, that I found quite
relevant to bring today. That was
about the vocational workers
and the fact that they felt they needed
to be included in this bill, and felt
that they were missing out. I think
it was quite crucial that
it explained to us that
these vocational workers are actually
taking up their own settlement or
their own
their own process soon, Mr Chair, and it wasn't appropriate to
have them inside of this bill. I
accepted that. I
them inside of this bill. I accepted
came us to and said to us about the fat that they were
concerned about the fact that, from the get go, 1
July, that every care
and support worker would be jumping at the
bits and going from a Level 2 to Level 4
qual if ction. Coming
from the sector
qual if ction. Coming from the
Coming from the sector myself and being part of
the qualification process and the workers doing it, I
knew that that wouldn't be
quite possible. I knew, too,
that this
sustainable workforce turnover rate
qualifications have got a process that each worker would go through.
So although I heard the ministers
were quite worried about that,
at the same time, I
didn't completely feel that that
was going to happen. I actually also want to talk about
the importance, actually,
of qualifications, which is why I think
the area of the training
and being recognised for your pay rate at your
level qualification is really
to respect qualifications, especially in
especially in this particular sector. I'm told quite often
that weir measured by
sector. I'm told quite often that
measured by how we take care of the most vulnerable in our
society. I think it's really
important that qualifications are
qualifications are attached to this bill. I think it will see
qualifications are attached to this
sustainability to ensure that the care and support workers have a
benchmark of qualifications
as well, and that it actually adds to
the provisionisation of the industry.
On the note about overseas
qualifications and how they will
be recognised in New Zealand,
I think one of the members talked
about the fact that
one of the members talked about the
I would like to say that, having had experience and benchmarking
of overseas qualifications in
the sector that I came from, that takes
time. It takes time to
make sure that the different
standards are actually met and
that they collaborate with each other and that
they are, in fact, on an
collaborate with each other and that
playing field. I think that it is important to recognise that, yes,
this settlement does pick up
on 1 July. I think it's really important
that the ITO is responsible for the
overseas qualification matches us,
and ours with New Zealand,
is actually quite crucial, Mr Chair. I
want to say that I was quite
Dr David Clark. I wanted to thank the minister for clarifying that
what we're doing here is only making
changes in so
far as they're necessary to give effect to the
settlement. That was an important
point of clarification
that he made. I do want to raise a matter
of concern in what he said in
his address
concern in what he said in his
have misspoken, but I think the matter