Barriers to promotion This part of the employment journey looks at Pacific peoples’ experiences of promotion. It became very clear in the stories shared with us that Pacific workers are rarely, if ever, promoted within their workplace. Some Pacific workers internalised the lack of promotion to mean that Pacific workers in general were seen as inadequate. One Pacific healthcare worker said “we’re never seen as adequate” (S047), while a Pacific corporate worker told us that there is “never an opportunity to grow if you’re a PI because they don’t think we have the brains to do what they think only they can do” (S346). The main themes we identified in relation to promotion were: • discrimination in the promotion process • promotions without additional benefits • Pacific women are promoted less often than men. Discrimination in the promotion process A minority of Pacific workers we engaged with said they had been promoted. Some suspect discrimination was behind this lack of advancement. One way this can happen is through continual moving of the goalposts for progression. One Pacific construction worker told us about his experience: The explanation is always changing. It took them a year to get an explanation. They said my attitude was disrespectful. Maybe because I always follow up, I challenge the decision, “I’m not a white man”, try and make other excuses, try and make things complicated. If I had good support to help me, all the rubbish wouldn’t have happened. (T001) A Pacific healthcare worker also felt that reasons she was not getting promoted alongside her peers were discriminatory: I think because – I know that there’s a little racism involved, because we were working in the drug treatment unit inside the prison, and there was three of us left, and we’re all from [educational institution]. And because we had no manager, one of our peers … [was] acting manager at the time, and now she’s gone on to maintain the manager’s role. So it wasn’t any sort of qualification or 48 anything, because we all came out from the same study with the same qual, and we were working at the same place for the same amount of years. (T006) Another healthcare worker spoke about the double standards that appeared to drive promotion: A lot of Pākehā promoted ahead of others even if they are the worst worker, ie late, always sick and always on phone during work. As a Pacific Islander, would be in huge trouble for 5 min late as Pākehā staff walk in 20 min late. I’ve been employed for 18 years, seen it many times. (S087) Promotions without additional benefits While many Pacific workers had never been promoted, those who had been often experienced the lack of additional benefits associated with a promotion, including pay rises. There was a recurring pattern in the stories we heard during our Inquiry that Pacific workers are informally filling leadership roles or have received a promotion with no additional pay. In some cases, a Pacific worker would end up doing more work with less pay. One Pacific healthcare worker told us they had been “stepping in to fill in the leadership role for two years and doing actually well and beyond but pay get less” (S064). In other cases, Pacific workers told us of being moved into the new role with a supposed new employment agreement on the way. However, the new agreement would never arrive. Instead, the Pacific workers affected would do the roles of two people while being paid at the old pay rate. One Pacific healthcare worker shared her experience: No pathway ever offered for promotions – not told to you in the job. You end up working to get experience and wait for opportunity. But most often no encouragement about my development and pathway to grow and take on new work in the job. (S149) The following story was shared by one Pacific worker who is now unemployed. It illustrates how their employer’s failure to promote them properly had a negative impact on them: