New Zealand is experiencing a shortage of midwives, alongside long-running complaints from midwives and unions about pay Photo: 123RF
An interim pay offer is on the table for midwives, who have so far been left out of gender equity deals for healthcare staff.
It affects about 1750 midwives and maternity care assistants employed by Te Whatu Ora.
The midwives union MERAS said they were pleased to finally have an offer on the table, as it would hopefully help retain desperately needed staff.
"I can't give any details of it at this stage because there's a process underway to come up with a memorandum of understanding," Midwifery Employment Representation and Advisory Service (MERAS) co-leader Jill Ovens said.
Also included were maternity care assistants, who were midwifery students working in hospitals while they studied.
"They're really valuable in the maternity setting, but it also gives them really valuable work experience and money while they're studying," Ovens said.
Midwives and nurses had both been seeking equal pay equity since 2018, but when nurses were granted interim payments in February, midwives were left out.
Ovens said this meant some nurses were being paid $11,000 a year more than the midwives who supervised them.
This did not help the already falling numbers of midwives who were leaving for better paying roles in other sectors in New Zealand, or similar roles overseas.
Ovens said there were sometimes shifts where there were more vacancies than actual midwives.
"[Midwives] are really unhappy about the length of time that it's taken to even get to the bargaining phase," she said.
The equity payment was being offered now because more permanent pay increase agreements were tied up in legal battles, but until an agreement was found on those, healthcare staff needed a boost to make ends meet.
Ovens said the midwives' legal battle shared many of the same facets as the nurses', such as the need for backpay. However, Te Whatu Ora had been slow to offer midwives the same interim solution.
"The midwives were put on the backburner, which has been so frustrating," she said.
The unions MERAS and the New Zealand Nurses Organisation, of which some midwives were also members, were aiming to reach an agreement with Te Whatu Ora by 5 May (International Midwives Day), which would then be put out to affected midwives for a vote. The vote would close on 12 May.