Nurses, DHBs to continue negotiations

WELLINGTON: Nurses and their employers yesterday pledged to continue bargaining to find a way through their complex impasse over pay and staffing.

In their first, brief comments since six hours of talks ended in Wellington on Tuesday, both the New Zealand Nurses Organisation and district health boards said they were ‘‘focused on reaching a settlement through bargaining’’.

Nurses walked off the job for 24 hours nationwide last Thursday in a deepening row over pay and staffing .

The nurses said they would meet again for further talks next Tuesday.

They added later that DHB representatives ‘‘expect to be able to present a revised offer to the team’’ that day.

Both sides said Tuesday’s talks were about ‘‘exploring options to settle the current employment negotiations’’.

It is a sign that effort is going into where a settlement might lie, given the union’s insistence that more money will be needed to boost the $520 million available for a settlement, against the Government’s refusal to boost funding now.

Safe staffing, or the lack of it, has emerged as the top issue for nurses. That has been highlighted further by their comments since the strike that staffing levels during the stoppage appeared higher than usual rosters would allow.

That has been rejected as incorrect by DHBs.

Pay equity — another interest of nurses — was already strengthened in the latest offer, with a commitment that it would be implemented by December 31, 2019.

While neither side will comment on where a solution might lie, Health Minister David Clark sparked interest last Friday when he said there would be no more money from the Government for salaries, omitting to add the word staffing.

That could mean DHBs at least would consider extra funding, probably in ‘‘outyears’’, from next July, for improved staffing.