Human Rights Commission

One of the primary goals of the Human Rights Commission is that all people in New Zealand have equal employment opportunities and access to decent and productive work.

The Commission’s work in this area is led by the Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner Dr Judy McGregor and delivered by specialist EEO staff and other staff across the Commission. The Commission provides information and advice on EEO through the National Equal Opportunity Network (NEON), a partnership established by the Commission and the EEO Trust; and it works with employers, trade unions and employees to promote workplaces that are free from unlawful discrimination and harassment.

This work is guided by the Framework for the Future, a comprehensive report on the state of EEO in New Zealand. Click here to read the Word Version (254kb) of the summary report or here for the PDF Version (777kb). Alternatively read the full report by clicking here (PDF 898kb).

Some of the key EEO activities are:

• Monitoring of the progress of women moving into leadership roles in the state sector, corporate, legal, academic and other fields through intervention strategies developed with business, unions, industry and the state sector and outlined in the 2008 Census of Women’s Participation PDF 800kb or for an extract in Word click here [Word 800kb].

• Development and update of easy-to-access information and resources on NEON www.neon.org.nz and in hard copy.

• Relationship building with Crown entities, portfolio departments and the SSC to deliver guidance in implementing ‘good employer’ obligations. The Commissioner will also review the progress of Crown entities in meeting their EEO obligations.

• Addressing societal stereotyping of older workers accessing work, and diverse groups of workers accessing trades training . These groups will be the subject of an outreach programme to address their limited access to full labour market participation. This work involves relationships with business, government agencies, NGOs, unions and industry training groups.

• Operation of a timely, accessible and impartial dispute resolution service to answer questions and resolve complaints of unlawful discrimination and harassment in the workplace.

The Commission will continue to use its position as an independent Crown entity to provide specialist advice to Government on laws, policies and programmes that are likely to have an impact on EEO issues.

Visit the NEON website at www.neon.org.nz for EEO-related news, information and guidance, including regular NEON updates and past issues of the NEON Newsletter.

For EEO publications and resouces click here.

For information about discrimination and how to make a complaint cick here.

For more information about EEO Commissioner Dr Judy McGregor click here.