Nurses to vote on revised pay offer
Nurses will vote next week on a revised offer recommended by the New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO).
Earlier this month thousands of nurses walked off the job and formed picket lines outside the nation’s hospitals for the first time in nearly 30 years.
NZNO members have already rejected four offers from DHBs since bargaining started last year.
Yesterday, NZNO associate industrial services manager Glenda Alexander said the organisation had achieved two significant improvements to the fourth District Health Board multiemployer collective agreement (MECA).
She said the offer expanded on the consistency members had asked for across the MECA for all steps.
‘‘We are recommending the offer because it retains previously achieved benefits and addresses the ongoing member priorities of greater need for clarity and commitment to safe staffing and also the issue of equity and fairness across the steps.’’
Alexander said the new step 7 on the registered nurse and registered midwife scale would now take effect 12 months after the implementation of step 6 and would become effective in May, 2020. An effective date for payment of pay equity would be December 31, 2019.
‘‘We remain confident that these later pay equity negotiations will deliver further pay increases as of that date.
‘‘In addition we have secured clearer monitoring and reporting mechanisms in relation to an immediate additional nursing staff funding allocation and, enforceable mechanisms for progress on Care Capacity and Demand Management (CCDM).’’
DHB spokesman Jim Green said he was pleased negotiations had produced an offer that the NZNO would take to its members.
‘‘We were pushed hard by the union to put together a package that met their members’ demands for action on safe staffing, as well as bringing the new top salary step for registered nurses and midwives into the term of the agreement.’’
Green said the offer contained $38m that DHBs would use to start recruiting additional staff immediately, and work with the NZNO on the areas where staff are most urgently needed.
Recommendations by the Employment Relations Authority were part of the negotiations, but would not be released until an agreement had been ratified, he said.
‘‘What I can say is that the DHB offer goes further than the either the ERA or the Independent Panel suggested and ensures any agreement will apply from June this year instead of a fortnight after ratification.’’
Health Minister David Clark said the organisation recommending the latest offer was ‘‘encouraging’’.