Twenty five more government jobs are to be lost, with two Labour Department units being canned, just a day after the Ministry of Social Development said up to 200 jobs could be lost in a restructure.
The Labour Department's pay and employment equity unit and labour market knowledge management unit are to be scrapped.
Seven jobs will go in the former unit, with Minister of Labour Kate Wilkinson saying it was part of the "the reprioritising" of government spending.
"Achieving the goal of closing the gap can't be realised by having a singular focus on the state sector," she says.
"This issue is the responsibility of all employers and good employers will work to tackle it."
But the Council of Trade Unions said the move showed "absolute disregard" for women workers "whose work is undervalued simply because they are women".
New Zealand women are paid on average 12% less than men doing the same jobs, president Helen Kelly says.
The gap is wider (35%) in the public sector.
Without the unit, work to identify discriminatory employment practices and eliminate them was likely to stop, Kelly says.
"This decision destroys hopes that the unfairness in women's pay will be rectified soon."
Eighteen jobs will be affected by the scrapping of the labour market knowledge management unit.
Department chief executive Christopher Blake said it had been decided the regional delivery of labour market knowledge services was no longer a priority.
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