Nurses fight for back pay

Auckland: Nurses’ long fight for gender pay equity has taken a further hit because of a dispute over back pay — they are heading back to the Employment Relations Authority (ERA).

After four years of negotiation with district health boards, unions the New Zealand Nurses Organisation and the Public Service Association appeared to have reached a settlement last month.

But at the last minute, members of the nurses organisation, the biggest union, raised concerns that the settlement did not include the back pay to December 2019 they had expected.

A poll was conducted and nurses have now voted to take the settlement back to the ERA to have it decide whether DHBs are required to pay the back pay. — RNZ