Care and support workers hold our communities together. They get our elderly up, washed, fed, and cared for with dignity. They sit with people who are lonely. They notice when something is wrong. It is skilled, demanding work, and it is overwhelmingly done by women, many of them Māori, Pasifika, and migrants. A year on from the Government’s decision to gut pay equity, these workers have not backed down.
A betrayal, and a fight that has gone global
The Equal Pay Amendment Act 2025 cancelled active pay equity claims overnight and stripped billions from the future wages of workers in care, health, and community services. Workers have refused to let it go. On 6 May, a year to the day after the law was rushed through under urgency, a coalition of around 20 organisations, including the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions and the Human Rights Commission, lodged a formal complaint with the United Nations. It asks the UN to investigate whether the changes amount to systemic discrimination against women under the international Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), that New Zealand has been a signatory to since 1985.
That followed the People’s Select Committee on Pay Equity, set up by ten former MPs from across the political spectrum after the Government shut down the normal select committee process. It heard more than 1,500 submissions and recommended repealing the 2025 changes and reinstating the cancelled claims without making workers start from scratch.
A funding boost with strings attached
The squeeze on care does not stop at pay equity. In June, the Government announced a 4% funding increase for aged residential care, worth around $79 million. Any new money for a starved sector is welcome, but it came with a catch. As part of the deal, aged care facilities are now expected to take hospital patients over the weekend, to free up hospital beds.
The problem is that aged care homes are already about 95% full, and the sector is short thousands of beds. Weekend staffing is at its thinnest, and aged residential care does not have the staffing ratios that hospitals do. When a new resident arrives at short notice, often without a clear care plan, it is care workers who have to get them settled safely, into a clean and prepared room, with the right food and proper care. That responsibility lands on people who are already stretched to their limit.
E tū members are clear about what has to happen. If workers are taking on more responsibility at the weekend, the funded pay increase must apply to weekend rates too, not just weekday pay. More than that, the sector needs real investment in safe staffing levels that are based on evidence and reflect what residents actually need. A funding top-up does not fix a system that was never built around the reality of the work.
“$79 million can’t solve the problems in the sector, and making us do even more work when we’re already understaffed is going to break us,” says caregiver, Ashley Perkin.
“I want to do a great job for everyone who I care for but we do not have enough time to do it also the fact that we cant get meds on weekends because the pharmacy we use in Nelson isn’t open after midday Saturday. It’s heartbreaking.”
Standing together at Summerset
Workers are also defending their basic union rights. Summerset was long seen as one of the better employers in the sector, with slightly better pay and staffing. Workers say that has changed. The company cut diversional therapy and activities hours, which matter hugely for residents’ wellbeing, and this year it cut registered nurse, caregiving, and housekeeping hours from rosters, piling more work onto already stretched teams.
E tū members, alongside members of the nurses’ union (NZNO), have been bargaining with Summerset for fair pay and to protect conditions, including weekend rates. After months of organising, including protests and petitions, an offer was reached and taken to members to consider. Before members had finished that process, the company held meetings with non-union staff and offered them the same deal. At the Warkworth site, union members were invited to sessions encouraging them to leave the collective agreement altogether. The unions wrote to Summerset raising serious concerns that this was an illegal breach of good faith.
Workers have pushed back hard, standing together and holding on to their kotahitanga. They know their strength is in their union, and they are not about to let it be picked apart.
It comes down to the vote
Every one of these fights points to the same place. In November, workers can choose a Government that values care work and the people who do it.
“It’s squeezing us even harder and making us the working poor. It’s a struggle living week to week,” says Gisborne home support worker and E tū member Monique Behan-Kitto. “We need to vote in a Government that’s actually going to invest in aged care and the people who work in it.”
Home support worker and Community Support Services Industry Council Convenor Tamara Baddeley puts it plainly.
“2026 of course is an election year. The most important thing you can do is vote for pay equity. Vote for a party that says they’ll reinstate it. We need to vote these bastards out.”
Coming up: a pre-election forum, and we need E tū there
Workers will get the chance to put their issues directly to political leaders at the Auckland Health and Care Pre-Election Forum, where party leaders will be asked to commit to safe staffing, pay equity, and a strong public health system. It is on Wednesday 29 July 2026 at the Lesieli Tonga Auditorium in Māngere, with doors at 6pm for a 6:30pm start. Entry is free and kai is provided.
A big E tū turnout is essential. When members fill the room, leaders feel the weight of our numbers and they listen. Register through Humanitix and select E tū when you sign up. For more information, email campaigns@etu.nz.