Crisis talks fail to avert strike
Crisis talks to avert today’s
24-hour nurses’ strike have failed, the New Zealand Nurses’ Organisation has confirmed.
Nurses, healthcare assistants and midwives were to walk off the job from 7am.
The nurses’ union more than
30,000-strong membership voted against accepting the latest iteration of a collective agreement put forward by the District Health Boards (DHBs), in an online vote that closed on Monday.
‘‘The NZNO negotiating team has advised the DHBs’ representatives that we remain available for further talks to resolve the negotiation impasse and to achieve an offer that is acceptable to our members,’’ the nurses’ union industrial services manager, Cee Payne, said.
“Life preserving services and contingency plans will be in place across the 20 district health boards. Patient safety and public safety is paramount.’’
News of the unsuccessful pay talks came as no surprise to Association of Salaried Medical Specialists executive director Ian Powell. Yesterday morning he predicted facilitation discussions, led by the Employment Relations Authority, to prevent the strike from going ahead would prove futile. ‘‘I think it is inconceivable that the strike will not proceed, notwithstanding the facilitation,’’ Powell said. ‘‘This is a direct consequence of nurses being basically treated as a balance sheet liability, rather than an asset, for so long.’’
Acting Prime Minister Winston Peters said yesterday he had not given up hope the strike would be called off but said there was no more money in the kitty to add to the offer.
‘‘We’ve gone as far as we can go as a Government. We got hold of a negotiated arrangement which we inherited – the nurses have had a raw nine years.
‘‘We doubled the offer. We took it to half-a-billion dollars, plus 500 more nurses and changed the pay scale in terms of promotion.
‘‘That’s the best we can do in six months and one Budget, and that’s where things stand,’’ Peters said.
The nurses’ union was ordered to take part in the facilitation process, following a DHB request – a lever used when collective bargaining talks run into serious difficulty. ‘‘The intent of the measure is to put pressure on the two parties in any given dispute to come to an agreement and resolve the matter,’’ Powell explained. Unlike mediation, facilitators have special powers to make determinations but whether a possible determination is made public remains at the facilitator’s discretion.
The industrial action has already forced huge disruptions to elective surgery and outpatients appointment schedules, with nurses committing only to the provision of ‘‘life preserving services’’ during the day-long strike. While emergency treatment will be available, questions remained over how hospitals would cope without the expertise of the more-than-30,000 union members – which include nurses, midwives and healthcare assistants. The nurses’ decision to down tools will be the first strike of its kind in more than 30 years, with NZNO chief executive Memo Musa describing it as ‘‘unprecedented’’.
During the strike period, doctors have been instructed not to carry out any duties outside of their normal job.
‘‘The Medical Council has been very clear. Don’t work out of your scope of practice – that is, what you’re trained to do,’’ Powell said. ‘‘If life preserving plans work according to their intent, in theory, there should be very little pressure, but the unknown in that is that nursing duties are quite different to doctors’ duties.’’