As many as 1500 people turned out in Nelson on Saturday for a second wave of nationwide protests against the government's new pay equity legislation. Photo: RNZ / Supplied
A second day of protests against changes to pay equity laws are being held around the country, after hundreds braved bad weather on Friday to express their anger over the government's sudden change to legislation.
The law change, rushed through Parliament under urgency this week, means 33 claims - representing thousands of workers - must be restarted.
Nelson Post Primary Teachers' Association regional chair Anna Heinz said 1500 people turned out to march along the city's main street just after 11am on Saturday. She said a real mix of people had come out to express their anger.
"Old, young, women, men, all kinds of different areas of society, it's a real broad range of people."
Heinz said "everyone" there was outraged by the speed of the law change, as well as the "arrogance and cowardice" of those responsible for it.
However, the attitude at the protest was positive, she said.
"They're all pleased to be here, because they feel disempowered from being able to make change. So being able to go on a march at least feels like something they can do."
Heinz said the Equal Pay Act 1972 was groundbreaking because it compared pay for workers in female-dominated sectors with similar jobs in male-dominated roles.
"I was a 12-year-old when they passed [it], and I noticed it at the time and thought, 'Gosh that sounds like an important thing.'
"I was aware of conversation at the time that said the big change and the big difference was going to be the comparators outside of the area where the women were working.
"That's the very thing that's been changed with this legislation change. They've taken the heart out of what was the best bit of that piece of legislation, that's what makes me so angry."
The change in legislation was announced by Workplace Minister Brooke van Velden on Tuesday, and would make it harder to lodge claims.
On Friday, under questioning from RNZ as protests swept the country, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said individuals and unions whose claims had been halted could resubmit their applications.
Luxon said the changes affected what was required in terms of the breadth of claims.
"For example, you've had librarians being compared in pay equity work to the work of fisheries officers."
He said there needed to be a comparative hierarchy of jobs to make the system more workable and give it more certainty.
"Pay equity is an issue where you have women in particular, in female-dominated industries, looking to the value of the work that they do is akin to value that might be a different job done in a different industry or a different sector."
In Ōtaki
A union representative said dozens of low paid workers who turned up to a National MP's office for a second day to protest against changes to pay equity law felt "hopeless and despondent".
Around 70 protesters turned up outside Tim Costley's Ōtaki electorate office on Saturday afternoon. Photo: Supplied
PSA spokesperson Rebecca Davey said 20 people turned up outside Tim Costley's Ōtaki electorate office on Friday. While on Saturday afternoon, around 70 protesters, many of them teachers, support workers and librarians, joined in the protest.
Davey said many people, especially support workers, were exhausted working two or three jobs to get by.
"Some have been working on claims for four years, these are rigorous claims and for the government to dismiss them is a kick in the guts."
Many felt too tired to fight, she added.
"They have no emotional labour left, and here they are having to fight this.
"Some people can't even afford to put petrol in their cars, so to get here to protest is an effort for these people.
"Some have messaged me to say 'I can't get to the protest because I can't afford public transport' or 'I'm too exhausted'. People have had enough."
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