Community nurses rally over pay disparity
Nurses in GP surgeries, aged care homes, and Plunket and iwi health centres who work to keep patients out of over-stretched hospitals are voting with their feet and leaving for Australia as their pay lags behind their hospital colleagues.
Kirsten Barnes works at Christchurch’s 24-Hour Surgery, an urgent care practice, and says demand is so high she is constantly asked to work extra shifts due to short-staffing and illness.
Barnes, who is a member of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO), said an indicative offer of a 2.78% pay increase was insulting, and she had voted against accepting it.
‘‘I have had enough of being a nurse.’’
Primary health nurses and NZNO members held rallies in Auckland, Tauranga, Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch yesterday to call for better pay.
Community nurses are paid under collective agreements with employers, including GPS, district nursing, aged care and Māori health providers, Plunket, and Family Planning.
But they are paid 10% to 25% less than nurses employed by Te Whatu Ora – Health New Zealand in public hospitals.
NZNO community nurses representative Danielle Davies said members were asked to vote on an indicative offer made by the employers. The vote closes next Monday.
The pay range under the current agreement was $26.14 to $36.02 per hour, compared with $28.68 to $42.55 for nurses employed by Te Whatu Ora doing comparable work, she said.
Riccarton Clinic owner, GP and General Practice Owners Association deputy chairperson Angus Chambers said employers were ‘‘absolutely in favour of pay parity between primary and secondary care colleagues’’, but were constrained by Government funding. This year the Government provided an annual 2.78% increase in funding subsidies for GPS, which dictated what they could offer nurses, Chambers said.
Four nurses at his practice had left for jobs in Australia in the past six weeks.
A Te Whatu Ora spokesperson said primary health care nurses are highly valued members of the health workforce.
Of an estimated $86.34 million in new funding to general practice, $52.67m is available for workforce pressures – more than the anticipated $12m cost for a new primary care nursing agreement, the spokesperson said.
Barnes said people were facing five-hour waits to see a doctor at the 24-Hour surgery and more people were going to urgent care centres instead of waiting weeks for a GP appointment.
Nurse Gina Chaffey works at a Māori Health provider in Tairawhiti
and said she would never leave her role, but questioned why the pay gap for nurses working in primary health or for iwi was ‘‘so big’’.
‘‘Meeting the needs of my people is always paramount, and they depend on me. But ... the Government needs to step up and meet its obligations under te Tiriti [of Waitangi].’’
Minister of Health Andrew Little said dealing with any parity issue for nurses in primary and aged care remained his ‘‘priority’’.
‘‘I recently received a proposal which was not acceptable as it did not move fast enough. I am working with other ministers on a resolution as quickly as possible with a view to providing certainty to parties in the coming months.’’