The agreement includes a salary increase for all roles covered by the collective of $4000 effective from 1 April 2023 (file image). Photo: RNZ / Rob Dixon
Nurses have voted to accept their latest pay offer from Te Whatu Ora, meaning planned strike action this week will not go ahead.
Minister of Health Ayesha Verrall said Te Whatu Ora hospital nurses and midwives would get another pay jump under the agreement between the government and New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO).
A statement from the government said the agreement included:
- a salary increase for all roles covered by the collective of $4000, effective from 1 April 2023
- an additional flat rate salary increase of $1000 to all designated senior nurses, nurse practitioners and designated senior midwives
- a further salary increase to all steps of all scales of $2000 or 3 percent whichever is the higher, effective from 1 April 2024
- a lump sum payment of $750 made to all NZNO members bound by the settlement at the date of ratification
- a further lump sum payment of $500 to all employees.
Senior nurses will now be paid between $114,025 and $162,802 a year, and registered nurses between $75,773 and $106,739 (both also receiving penal rates).
Senior midwives who were NZNO members would be on full-time base salaries of $104,622 to $153,180 and registered midwives on $79,261-$103,535.
Midwives represented by NZNO and the Midwifery Employee Representation and Advisory Service were yet to resolve their pay equity claim, the statement said.
The NZNO's 35,000 members had been due to walk off the job on Wednesday for 24 hours, and the members' vote to accept the latest offer had been close.
Chief executive Paul Goulter said the close result showed there remained "a serious level of concern and discontent amongst members".
"Many members see the offer as not helping address the shortage of nurses that is severely impacting on the quality of care they can provide for their unwell patients. It is pretty light on important issues such as health and safety at work and minimum staff to patient ratios.
"It doesn't provide a wage rise that meets the cost of living either."
The settlement comes on top of last week's pay equity settlement to nurses to address historic sex-based discrimination.
However, Goulter said it was important not to confuse the two.
"Pay Equity is a one-time adjustment to wage levels meant to address historic sex-based discrimination against people who work in a female-dominated profession. "Collective agreements are re-negotiated every few years and are focused on ongoing pay and working conditions."
Bargaining for the next collective agreement would start early next year and the union planned to "come out fighting" on health and safety, safe staffing, nurse-to-patient ratios and cost of living increases, he said.
Verrall said: "this government is in it for nurses, and over six years we have delivered pay equity as well as regular increases to this historically underpaid group of predominantly women workers."
"When Labour took office in 2017, the top of the registered nurse pay scale was $66,755. Today it is $106,738 - that's a near $40,000 increase or 59.9 percent in just six years."
Verrall said the package "also includes a further commitment to safe staffing that will result in a range of improved health and safety measures".
"This government is committed to addressing pressures on our health workers, and this settlement package is a step towards achieving that."
Speaking after the weekly Cabinet meeting, Verrall said rates paid to nurses were important for keeping them in New Zealand's health system.
The government was working towards sustainable staffing of the healthcare system with New Zealanders able to access excellent planned and urgent care when they needed it, she said, with work underway "at pace to recruit and train more nurses to fill current shortages."
"Last year over 8000 nurses registered for the first time, a 60 percent increase from the previous year, and in the last quarter the number of nurses registered to practice in New Zealand has grown by about 2000.
"I think this is an excellent time to start and stay nursing in New Zealand given that we have turned around historic pay inequity and are doing a great job of turning around relativities with other professions and jurisdictions.
"I am aware that the nurses salary settlement has affected relativities within the health system, but I think we all agree the important thing is to end gender-based pay discrimination within our health service."
The earlier pay equity deal had come out of a contingency fund included in this year's Budget, while this latest collective agreement deal was able to be funded through existing Te Whatu Ora baselines, Verrall said.
The total cost was still being calculated but it was "within the parameters set ... when ... Te Whatu Ora budget was written".
The collective agreement increases would be backpaid from April 2023, with another tranche taking effect a year later.