Ki te whaiao, ki te ao Mārama
54% of employer respondents said there
was bias in their recruitment, promotions
and pay (up from 19% in 2018) and 41%
said there was unconscious bias in their
organisation. Furthermore the 2019 New
Kiwis survey of employers found 51% said
that employing migrants had a positive
impact on their attitudes (or the attitudes
of their staff) towards employing migrants.
Another submission commented on the link
between immigration settings and insecure
employment:
Immigration settings in recent years
have emphasised temporary migration,
resulting in often precarious employment
conditions for often highly skilled migrants
and missed opportunities for long-term
settlement, social inclusion and broader
cultural enrichment.
Other participants commented on the ethnic
pay gap, with one noting “if you want to hire
brown employees then you need to pay
them accordingly.” Several commented on
the unremunerated cultural support they
provided in their workplaces, on top of the
specific duties of their job, and noted this
needed dedicated provision.
One person commented on wanting to
“not be the first person asked to [do a]
performance at work”. Another noted that
“company culture needed to be able to
recognise cultural capabilities and expertise
their workers bring and value this.”
Others commented on friends leaving a
workplace because it felt culturally unsafe;
a culturally safe workplace, according to
one participant, would:
Heal my trauma and internal racism. It
would allow me to feel confident walking
into corporate sectors and make me feel
safe in showing who I truly am and not
having to act ‘white’ to get into places.
Te Kāhui Tika Tangata
One submission described the experiences
of several interns in the workplace; these
experiences included the implication that
they were taking jobs from New Zealanders,
assumptions that they were unskilled
workers, and mispronunciation of their
names, which in some cases led them to
change their names.
Another participant described how
unconscious bias plays a role in the hiring
process:
I know that my mate who’s married to
a Pākehā man, so on her CV it reads as
an English name, she seems to have
no problems getting jobs or getting job
interviews. We finished uni the same year.
I have problems. She doesn’t.
Several commented on the need for antiracist measures in the workplace: “we need
an actual mechanism put in place to identify
and address racist practices and prejudices.”
Health
Many participants highlighted systemic
racism as the direct cause of poorer health
outcomes experienced by ethnic Tangata
Tiriti. They discussed the need for a diverse
health workforce, and for equitable and
culturally safe access to healthcare to
improve people’s health and wellbeing.
Some commented on the importance of an
intersectional approach and how that had
been of benefit to them.
Some participants spoke of the impact of
racism: “if racism didn’t exist, healthcare
for my dad would have been better.”
A Pākehā health worker observed the
impacts of racism around them, even while
it didn’t impact them personally: “I work
in a kaupapa Māori environment and am
exposed every day to racism aimed at my
colleagues and clients. I … see the impact of
institutional racism on the population.”
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