Pay equity settlement - information for employees

Employees began receiving their new wage rates from 1 July 2017.  Generally, all other conditions of employment remained the same. However, service and qualification allowances were extinguished because they were replaced by the new qualifications-based pay structure. Weekend and penal rates remain but those that are calculated as a percentage of base pay are now converted to allowances.

All employees covered by the settlement in the aged and disability residential care and home and community support sectors receive the new wage rates regardless of whether or not they belong to a union.

On 1 July 2017 all existing care and support workers moved on to the following scale, either at the step that recognised their qualifications or their service with their employer, whichever was the most advantageous to the employee.

The qualification must be, or assessed by Careerforce as equivalent to, a Level, 2, 3 or 4 New Zealand Certificate in Health and Wellbeing from an NZQA-accredited provider.

View the full and final list of Pay Equity and Qualification Equivalencies. No further qualification equivalency assessment applications are being accepted.

Care and support workers can provide evidence of their qualification in the form of a graduation certificate, and for New Zealand qualifications, also via their New Zealand Record of Achievement (NZ RoA) which is an official transcript all the New Zealand qualifications and standards that a person has achieved as reported by NZQA-accredited education organisations. Authenticity of an ROA can be verified at on the NZQA website.

All care and support workers (as at 30 June 2017) who reach 12 years current continuous service with their employer after 1 July 2017 and who have not achieved a Level 4 Certificate will move on to the following rates unless there are genuine reasons, based on reasonable grounds, that the employee’s employer did not provide the support necessary for the employee to achieve the Level 4 qualification. In which case the employee will be entitled to move to the Level 4 step above. Any dispute about the provision of the necessary support will be dealt with through the normal dispute resolution processes.

Current continuous service is considered to be service with the current employer, not the total length of time spent as a care and support worker with previous employers.

Continuous service with the current employer includes any service transferred under the Employment Relations Act 2000 (the Act). In summary, the Act sets out the process for an employer to use where a business is sold, transferred or contracted out and requires employment agreements to contain ‘employee protection provisions’. Specific groups of employees, in certain situations, may transfer to the new employer on their existing terms and conditions, including having any transferred service recognised as continuous service.

The minimum rates and progression for care and support workers employed after 1 July 2017 are:

The qualification must be, or assessed by Careerforce as equivalent to, a Level, 2, 3 or 4 New Zealand Certificate in Health and Wellbeing from an NZQA-accredited provider.

The pay equity settlement parties agreed to create incentives to help care and support workers gain formal qualifications. The Act now requires employers to provide support to enable workers covered by the settlement to reach the following level on the NZ Qualifications Authority Health and Wellbeing Certificate (or its equivalent) within the following time periods:

• Level 2 NZ Certificate – within 12 months of employment,
• Level 3 NZ Certificate – within 3 years of employment,
• Level 4 NZ Certificate – within 6 years of employment.