Equal Pay Awards name Wintec a winning workplace for women

Katria Raffan (left), Jane Bland and Katrina Van de Ven of Wintec receive the Innovation Award at the sixth annual Equal Pay Awards in Auckland.

Wintec joined three other leading New Zealand businesses on stage to receive an award at the sixth annual YWCA Equal Pay Awards in Auckland last night.

Wintec received the Innovation Award in recognition of the Wintec Industry Sharing Experience (WISE) programme which allows staff and students to form valuable partnerships with employers through industry secondments and teaching partnerships.

This novel way of addressing the workplace pay gap was praised by judge Rob Campbell who described the initiative as “a very good public sector corporate initiative which reflects sound organisational strategy and passion from those delivering”.

WISE is a modern approach to the professional career break, allowing staff the opportunity to take a secondment with an external organisation.  The programme was launched in conjunction with flexible working and career break processes to build on staff wellbeing and morale, improve retention rates and increase industry currency.  

The Innovation Award celebrates innovative responses to addressing the equal pay gap while criteria also assessed Wintec’s wider approach to gender needs in the workplace and community.

The Awards honour businesses that make conscious efforts to address diversity and inclusion in the workplace, gender equality and equal pay. In 2019, Statistics New Zealand found that the official pay gap was 9.3 per cent. New Zealand women, on average, still earn less per hour than men.

Find out more about the Equal Pay Awards here.

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