Here in Aotearoa New Zealand we still have a politically neutral public service. For those interested you can see how this commitment is spelt out in legislation in the Public Service Act 2020. In my experience it was never unclear that political neutrality was expected of me when I was working in the public service. What I felt was, and is lacking is a conversation about what politically neutral really means in practice. I can testify from experience that the lack of conversation about this leads to some very different understandings of this obligation- with some serious real world consequences. I think recent articles about official advice on the funding of Mike Kings ‘Gumboot Friday’ underscore our need as a society to have this conversation. What is the job of those advising government? What should the public expect? This short blog touches on these issue in the hopes that these conversations are being had in earnest to support all those working in and for the public service.

If we do not embrace the disruption and discomfort of a pay equity process, we will be losing a critical opportunity for progress. A pay equity process offers an opportunity to fundamentally change the way we think, talk about and value skills, responsibility and effort in work. This is the difference between bargaining a temporary pay increase and being part of transforming our societies perception and recognition of work. In working on a particular pay equity claim it can be easy to lose sight of the fact that this is the aim of this mahi. We must change the way we value work if we want to eliminate gender and ethic pay gaps.

If you go to your collective or individual employment agreement, you will find a clause in there about sick leave and what is expected of you if you are sick. For example, how you should notify your employer and at what point you may need to provide a medical certificate. This is all very standard, and chances are you probably haven’t looked twice at this clause. If you haven’t, I encourage you to go unbury that agreement now and take a look.

There is a reason for this recommendation. I have recently seen a growing trend of employers adding clauses to individual employment agreements (ones not negotiated by a union) which allow your employer to send you to see a medical practitioner of their choosing to obtain a medical certificate for any physical or psychological sickness or injury that may impact on your ability to work.

Many of us will have experienced job interviews in our working lives. Some of us will have also been interviewers. While these job interviews may have varied slightly in terms of length, style and makeup, I feel pretty safe in saying that most interviews are a torrid experience. Often for both the interviewer and interviewee they are exhausting, stressful and time consuming.  This may be ultimately worth it if they were an utterly reliable and equitable way to connect the right people with the right workplaces and the right roles. In my experience however job interviews generally fail to fulfil this function, other than by luck.

Supervision provides a space to hone our critical thinking skills, to process our experiences and continue to learn and grow in a safe environment. Safe does not mean that you will not have your ideas questioned or your actions challenged, but that when this occurs its aim is to aid growth and insight, not to judge. For these reasons a supervisor should not be undertaking your performance review or deciding on your pay. In order to grow people require the light and sunshine of freely expressing doubts, vulnerabilities and aspects of the work they struggle with.

Fundamentally pay equity is about mana. A pay equity process allows the skills, responsibilities and effort of workers to be fully seen and articulated- often for the first time. I have seen this process bring workers to tears as they feel that they can now communicate to whānau and friends’ pride in what they do. While I was presenting internationally last year on our pay equity system, a senior US Government official broke down crying when I illustrated the skills of a cleaning job as uncovered in a pay equity investigation. Her mother had been a cleaner and she had grown up ashamed of that fact until that moment.

It is a legal requirement to have a written employment agreement, for every type of employment- i.e. casual, fixed term, temporary, permanent etc. This agreement must adhere, at least, to minimum standards of employment as set out in law. It’s surprising how little this is actually known across Aotearoa. Perhaps though this speaks to the lack of education throughout our schooling system on preparing people to understand and enforce their legal and political rights.