Statement of Intent 2013 to 2016 - Human Rights Commission

HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION | STATEMENT OF INTENT11Outcome area one:Work and educationOutcomeStructural discrimination and barriers to equality eliminatedso all people in New Zealand have access to decent andproductive work and quality education.Situation analysisInequalities in employmentWomen continue to be paid approximately 10 per centless than men on a median hourly basis and are overrepresentedamong workers earning at, or just above, theminimum wage. Women remain under-represented inleadership roles in both the private and public sectors. Thegender pay gap in the public service is wider than that ofthe whole labour force. These inequalities are more acutefor Mäori women, Pacific women, young women, andwomen with disabilities.Despite the ethnic composition of the public servicebroadly matching the ethnic composition of the NewZealand population, significant ethnic inequalities in payand management roles persist across the public sector.Mäori, Pacific and Asian peoples are under-represented insenior leadership roles. The pay gap between Mäori andEuropean New Zealanders is 11 per cent, while it is 19 percent for Pacific peoples, and 12 per cent for Asian peoples.Population-wide, Mäori and Pacific rates of unemploymentare three times higher than that of European NewZealanders, while the rates of unemployment of peoplefrom other backgrounds (Asian, Middle Eastern, LatinAmerican and African) are approximately twice as high.Employment data on people with disabilities is collectedinfrequently. In all three disability surveys to date,conducted as part of the general Census, people withdisabilities of working age are more than twice as likely asnon-disabled people to be unemployed. We will contributeto the work of the Disability Convention independentmonitoring mechanism on guidelines on reasonableaccommodation in employment, led by the Office of theOmbudsman.Young people have been disproportionately affected bythe global financial crisis and, when they are able to findwork, are often employed in more vulnerable sectorswhere there is less job security, high turnover, lower wagesAll human beings are born free and equalin dignity and rights. They are endowedwith reason and conscience and shouldact towards one another in a spirit ofbrotherhood.Article 1, Universal Declaration of Human RightsInternational human rights standardsThe International Covenant on Economic, Social andCultural Rights (ICESCR) refers explicitly to equalopportunities at work and establishes the maininternational human rights standards relevant tothis outcome, along with core International LabourOrganisation conventions. Both ICESCR and the Conventionon the Rights of the Child provide for the right toeducation. Other human rights standards further assertthese rights for identified vulnerable population groups.and more part-time and casual hours. The unemploymentsituation of Mäori and Pacific youth is acute. The Pacificyouth unemployment rate is at least twice that of the youthunemployment rate for European New Zealanders; the Mäoriyouth unemployment rate one and a half times. Disabilityadvocates and commentators note the double disadvantagein the labour market of being both disabled and young.Provincial and rural New Zealand communities areparticularly vulnerable to layoffs in dominant locationbasedindustries. The loss of several hundred jobs from onecompany or one industry in smaller centres has a much moresignificant effect on the whole community than is the casein urban New Zealand.Inequalities in educationMäori and Pacific peoples continue to experience significantdisadvantage in terms of educational outcomes. Incompulsory education, approximately 50 per cent of Mäoristudents leave school with no educational qualificationscompared to 21 per cent of the overall population. Pacificexpulsion rates are over three and a half times higher thanfor New Zealand European students; the expulsion rate forMäori students three times higher.