Inquiry Likely On Equal Pay

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32302, 21 May 1970, Page 12

Inquiry Likely On Equal Pay

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, May 20.

A committee of inquiry into equal pay for women was possible, the Deputy Prime Minister (Mr Marshall) said today.

He said in a statement that he had brought the matter before the Cabinet and when recommendations had been■ received from the Women’s Council the matter would be piaced before 1 the Cabinet again for a decision.

Mr Marshall's statement coincided with a Labour Party's private member’s bill, calling for the introduction of equal pay in three stages. The bill was introduced in Parliament by Mr R. L. Bailey (Heretaunga). Mr Marshall said he had reported fully to the Cabinet on a recommendation, from the National Advisory Council on the Employment of Women, that a commission of inquiry be set up. At its next meting in June, the Women’s Council was to consider possible terms of reference for the inquiry. After he had received this report he would confer with organ- i isations of employers and' workers and other interested j parties. Equal pay for women doing equal work could be in-| troduced over three years fori as little as sl2m, Mr Bailey said in introducing his bill, The bill provides that evefy i wage-fixing authority shall 1 eliminate differentiations i based on sex in scales of 1

salary or wages. The private sector should

follow the lead given by the Labour Government in 1960, which introduced legislation providing equal pay for women employed in the state 'services, he said. “Many employers in New Zealand are using cheap labour and it is about time the women of New Zealand were given recognition,” Mr Bailey I said.

The United Nations recognised equal rights, he said, but this meant very little without legislative backing. He appealed to the Govern-

ment not to reject the bill. “The question is not how we can afford it but how, morally, we can go on without it,” he said. Mr Marshall replied that there was no disagreement in the Government on the principle that there should be equal pay for women, but what was disputed was the method of implementation. “The Government is taking action which will lead to the implementation of its policy as. set out in the National Party manifesto,” he said.