Guestie: Who is Kristine Bartlett?

Many thanks to Rebecca Matthews of the Pay Equity Challenge Coalition for permission to re-post this from their blog:

An important legal case can put a previously unknown individual into the spotlight and maybe even make them a household name. It can also be a way for one person to symbolise the experience of hundreds of thousands of others.

Get to know the name Kristine Bartlett. Because this brave and hard-working Lower Hutt caregiver is the new face of the campaign for fair pay for low-paid women and for women’s work to be paid fairly when compared to jobs men do.

The Service and Food Workers Union Nga Ringa Tota is taking a case that aged care employers and the Government that funds them are in breach of the Equal Pay Act 1972 because of their failure to address the very low pay rates in the sector.

The union member at the centre of the case, Kristine Bartlett, is a long-term caregiver at Terranova Homes and Care. She says her hourly wage of $14.46 is less than what would be paid to male employees with the same, or substantially similar skills. Only six of Terranova’s  117 carers are men.

The new case is an historic opportunity to prove that female dominated care work is undervalued and underpaid as was so convincingly demonstrated in the Caring Counts Report.

This case heralds a new approach in the fight for equal pay and pay and employment equity in New Zealand.

The case has been referred to the Employment Court from the Employment Relations Authority. The Pay Equity Challenge Coalition has been accepted as an intervener by the Court. The status of interveners is a watching brief and they may possibly make extra submissions to those of the claimants.

Snippets from the "Diary of a Caregiver" - Wellington August 9th

This event sounds totally amaze, many thanks to Rebecca for telling me about it.

Snippets from the “Diary of a Caregiver”

EEO Commissioner, Judy McGregor, will talk on her experiences as a caregiver and compiling the report Caring Counts

This event is hosted by the NZCTU Women’s Council and is a fundraiser for the Federation of Trade Unions of Burma Women’s Committee

August 9^th, 5.30- 7.00pm, 13^th Floor Education House, 178 Willis Street. Wellington

Serving soup, rolls and snacks at 6pm – a cash bar will be open

Cost $20 & $10.00 for low waged

Rsvp (required) to Karin Currie Karinc@nzctu.org.nz by  August the 7^th. 

Facebook event.

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I'm keen to assist with organising something similar in Auckland if others are interested...

Expanding and contracting and expanding again

I was so sure it would be the Tuesday.  No particular reason, just a hunch. 

Due date was the first or second of September; the midwife seemed to waggle back and forth between them.  I was full and heavy, the most pregnant I'd ever been before.  Maybe I thought Tuesday because I wanted the pregnant part to be over.  I was very apprehensive about the labour part though, so I just kept pushing it away in my mind. 

Magically this process was going to be:

1. Pregnant
2. ????
3. Baby and mother healthy and well

I hadn't laboured at all with Wriggly, not a single contraction, in a story I told in three parts several years ago.  I was partly looking forward to giving labour a go, but pretty nervous, especially in regard to what I consider one of the scariest medical words in the English language, "crowning".  And I knew if labour didn't come on spontaneously soon it would be off to surgery for another sunroof delivery, with nary a uterus quiver experienced, and no chance of labouring with any future pregnancies either.

By 10.30pm I'd given up waiting to feel my first ever contraction and I headed to bed.

sleepless night

i really don't know what to say. sat in my office trying not to cry (and not entirely successful at that), listening as the news came in. death and devastation in region barely recovered from the last lot of earthquakes, and so much worse than last time. i wonder how many cantabrians are going to get through the night, i know there won't be much sleep for them. not tonight & not for quite a few nights.

i'm sitting here in my comfortable bed, in my intact house, & wishing i could at least offer a family a place to stay. a nice hot shower & toilets that work, a night's sleep without fear of aftershocks.

we had a meeting at my place tonight of members of the waikato interfaith council. we were planning for the 2012 interfaith forum, but took time to have some silence and prayers for the people of christchurch. time for us to shed tears together and think about what practical support we can offer. time to share bits of news and comfort each other, even though we aren't actually the ones suffering.

i'd like to acknowledge and personally thank a whole heap of people. the search & rescue teams. the police. the army. the fire service. members of the public who are pulling their sleeves up and doing what they can to support the rescue effort. the medical teams at hospitals and shelters. those who are supporting friends and neighbours. public servants and civil defence staff. all those who work in the media, including camera operators, producers, journalists, technicians & any others behind the scenes getting the information to us. workers for NGOs and faith groups, offering whatever support they can. those organising shelter for people who have no home left. those working frantically to get communication services and power working again.

and to anyone i've missed who is doing what they can to help out, whether in a big or small way. thank you for doing what i'm unable to do. thank you for your courage and determination, your strength & presence of mind. thank you for making a difference.

finally, to those suffering from physical injury, shock, trauma and fear, i wish you well and sincerely hope that your situation improves soon. for those who have suffered the loss of a loved one or unable to find someone, my condolences. i wish i could offer you comfort or ease.

Of families and earthquakes

My brother rang me early Saturdayday morning, and told me that there had been a massive earthquake in Christchurch. We're a North Island family, and we don't have family down south, but as it turned out, my beloved uncle was there on Friday night, staying on the eighth floor of a hotel. I was able to contact him by txt and confirm that he was okay, but after that, I stayed off the network.

I spoke to him by phone on Sunday morning. It was terrifying, he said. He woke to his bed rocking and shuddering, and only by clinging on tight did he manage to avoid being thrown out. Many of the other people staying in the hotel were tipped out of their beds. He packed up and got down stairs, and then in company with the other guests, assembled outside. It was bitterly cold. After a while, the hotel staff brought out sheets and blankets. There was no information: the hotel did not have a battery-operated radio. All of the guests were badly frightened. Eventually my uncle made it to the airport. The building was closed, so together with other travellers, he spent most of the day perched with his luggage on a traffic island. People helped each other out, sharing food and water, looking after luggage for each other, supporting each other. A nearby hotel made its bathrooms available for people to use. By mid-afternoon, the airport re-opened, and late in the day, he got a flight to Auckland, and from there, home to Wellington. On Saturday, he coped, but on Sunday, in the safety of his home, he has been very, very shaken.

As the plane took off from Christchurch, the people on board clapped.

I'm sure people functioned on adrenalin on Saturday. There had been a disaster, by who knows what good fortune there had been no direct loss of life, and it was a matter of everyone doing what they could to check on their neighbours and families and friends, to look after people who were injured, to pull together food and water and shelter for the day. But by today, I'm guessing that the longterm nature of the damage has started to become apparent. My uncle and the other people on the flights out of Christchurch will have gone home to comfortable beds, clean water, power at the flick of a switch. Many people whose homes are in Christchurch don't know when they will have access to such basic goods again. A problem for adults of course, but so much more of a problem for people with others to care for. Parents will be worried about food and shelter for their children, adult children will be worried about caring for elderly parents, caregivers will be concerned about the people they assist with daily living. Some people with disabilities may be in extra difficulty too, especially if their ability to live independently is predicated on functioning public services. Things will be all the more difficult because at this stage, there will be no end in sight.

My thoughts are with the people of Christchurch.

Some other thoughts: The old buildings in Christchurch were damaged, badly, but the new buildings, built to earthquake standards, survived. Not only are the building codes excellent, but they are administered by a corruption-free inspectorate. This weekend, we New Zealanders have good reason to take great pride in our corruption-free public servants.

As people in Christchurch are coping with the earthquake, people in Victoria, Australia, are coping with floods.

Cross posted