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Thousands of nurses to walk off the job today in strike action nationwide

June 9, 2021

It comes after the New Zealand Nurses Organisation voted to reject two recent pay increase offers.

About 30,000 nurses at all public hospitals and DHB facilities will be walking off the job from 11am to 7pm today, warning that it could be the first of many strikes if an agreement with their employers isn’t reached. 

It comes after the New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) voted “overwhelmingly” to reject the DHBs’ second collective agreement pay increase offer

The strike will affect Covid-19 vaccination centres across the country. Life-preserving health services and nursing services at MIQ facilities will stay running. 

Deena Cardon, a surgical nurse at North Shore Hospital, told Breakfast yesterday it was “very tough” for her and her colleagues to be taking strike action. But, she said it had to be done to ensure future patients wouldn’t be put at risk. 

“Burnout, exhaustion, considering working overseas. All of those things are very real and I see myself and my colleagues going through [that] on a daily basis.”

Advocates say the proposed state sector wage freeze is ill-timed with concerns that more senior nurses will soon be lost overseas.

Cardon said if this continued, there wouldn’t be enough nurses to take care of patients in the future.

Surgical nurse Deena Cardon and NZNO lead advocate David Wait say without better pay, people will continue to leave the profession.

NZNO lead advocate David Wait said the second DHB offer did not significantly change from the first and didn't address staffing shortages and didn't provide a pay rate that would attract and retain people.

The union’s decision to reject the offer was prompted by the inclusion of a lump sum payment of $4000. This was a part payment on back pay that's owed to members through the pay equity claim that's expected to be settled at the end of the year. 

Wait said members knew lump sums didn’t actually lift pay rates in the long-term or improve the long-term issues that the health system faced. He said NZNO wanted a "profession-enhancing offer" from the DHBs that recognised the contribution nursing staff made.

In the House yesterday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said DHBs had made an offer that “substantially lifts” the pay of nurses on the lowest pay bands, as well as starting brackets. 

“At the moment, their [NZNO’s] ask is 17 per cent [annualised increases]; we're just not in the position to be able to fund that at this point in time,” Ardern said. 

Tairāwhiti DHB chief executive Jim Green confirmed the 17 per cent figure on Breakfast this morning. 

Hauora Tairāwhiti’s Jim Green says DHBs will see where it can make adjustments in its offer.

He said bargaining between DHBs and NZNO will continue after the strike, and that he was confident these would continue to be done in good faith. 

He said DHBs will be "listening" to start off with, then see what else it can offer nurses. 

“It really very much centres around the pay equity settlement and the expectations around that from nurses."

Green said a settlement could be reached within "the next month or so", and that this would be key to reaching an agreement with nurses over their collective agreement.

“I believe that we [DHBs] are [valuing nurses enough]. But, clearly, the outcome of the pay equity settlement is showing that nurses have been historically undervalued. That has to be addressed."

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