Little AndrewSUPPORT WORKERS (PAY EQUITY) SETTLEMENTS AMENDMENT BILLFirst ReadingHon ANDREW LITTLE (Minister of Health): I present a legislative statement on the Support Workers (Pay Equity) Settlements Amendment Bill.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): That legislative statement is published under the authority of the House and can be found on the Parliament website.Hon ANDREW LITTLE: I move That the Support Workers (Pay Equity) Settlements Amendment Bill be now read a first time. This bill as the motion for urgency indicates does quite a simple thing and that is it extends the life of the current legislation enacted in 2017—however with the pay rates amended and in recognition of the fact that the part of the current legislation that prohibits pursuit of a pay equity claim is now ended and a pay equity claim can be advanced.I should say that in the lead up to this there's been a fair amount of exchange between the unions representing many of these workers Government departments and indeed myself to work out what is the best pathway through. We know that the one thing this group of workers has been campaigning for and agitating for for many many years now—10 years at least—and indeed was behind the litigation that led to the 2017 legislation is getting pay equity. In substitution for that the previous Government enacted this legislation—admittedly with the agreement of the unions—that provided enhanced pay rates at the time but prohibited them from seeking a pay equity claim. The previous pay equity claim that they were advancing had been mounted under the Equal Pay Act as it was at the time. The current legislation expunges the claim that was lodged in that respect and all litigation and so any pay equity claim for this group of workers has to start from scratch. But this group of workers did get the benefit of legislation in this Parliament that set rates of pay for a five-year period and every worker that falls under the rubric of the legislation benefits from that. We have amended the pay rates. Two things have happened in relation to this. First of all this group of workers already benefited from a pay rise that took effect in November last year. It was a pay rise triggered by the labour cost index adjustment mechanism in the legislation. That adjustment was roughly 1.6 percent and that was backdated to last July to the date of the most recent increase. In addition to that this Government is funding a further 3 percent to take effect from 1 July this year subject to the passage of this legislation so that since the increase on 1 July last year this group of workers will have benefited from a 4.6 percent pay increase. Added to that they've had a small adjustment in their in-between travel allowance. It's not quite at the IRD rate but it is closer to it. An increase in that was funded on a temporary basis recently—as petrol prices went up—and Health NZ has agreed to continue funding that adjustment from 1 July. So we've done everything we can to alleviate the current cost pressures on this group of workers. In my engagement with the unions and indeed with the providers what they most want to do is get on with the pay equity claim for these workers and the Government will provide resource support for both sides—for both the providers that is to say the employers and also the unions—so that each is supported by appropriate technical advice and expertise and can get on and deal with the pay equity claim for this group of workers. For this group of workers the duties they do and the skill set that they have is reasonably well defined. So I'm not anticipating a huge difficulty in the parties finding appropriate comparators going through the technical processes that they have to and arriving at a suitable conclusion. So we are supporting this group of workers to do the one thing that they and their predecessors have campaigned for for a long long time—and that is that genuine pay equity that has been denied to them for a long time—and now they will get it. They'll get a pay adjustment effective at 1 July this year to add to what they got in November last year. That'll make a big difference. And on that basis I commend this bill to the House.