Thank you, Karen Radich, an employment law barrister in Wellington, New Zealand, for giving us more info on the new significant equal pay decision from New Zealand.

We commented on August 24th that “The Dominion Post of New Zealand reported that the The Employment Court has issued a preliminary ruling that “women in female-dominated industries can now compare themselves to men in other industries requiring similar skills when pushing for pay equality (emphasis added).”

We appealed for help from our New Zealand colleagues for further information on this case since the article we read was somewhat sketchy, and Karen came to our rescue:

“You can access the Employment Court’s decision at this site:                                               http://www.justice.govt.nz/courts/employment-court/judgments-of-the-court-1

The decision is located under the “August” heading and is called and Food Workers Union Nga Ringa Tota Inc v Terranova Homes and Care Ltd, citation: [2013] NZEmpC 157.

One of the online headlines when this case came out was ‘one of the most poorly paid women have been thrown a lifeline.’  We’re certainly all watching with interest to see what other cases come out of this one.  I haven’t heard whether the case has been appealed yet, but wouldn’t be surprised!”