Andrew Little told nurses he wants to find a solution to their four-year fight for pay equity. Photo: RNZ / Rosie Gordon
Nurses silently protested over pay issues as Minister of Health Andrew Little fronted up to the Nurses Organisation annual conference today.
Little spoke of the immense pressure the workforce was under and answered questions from union members, but some nurses were left disappointed.
The minister pointed to staff shortages, with more than 3000 current hospital vacancies.
"We need to take immediate steps to fill them and we are. We provided financial support to enable overseas qualified nurses to complete the competence assurance programme," Little told the audience.
As he spoke, five nurses stood at the back of the room with signs that displayed the date 31 December, 2019 - the day nurses said pay equity was meant to be solved, and the day they think their pay rise should be backdated to.
Five nurses make a point to the Health Minister. Photo: RNZ / Rosie Gordon
Among them was nurse and central region delegate Grant Cloughley.
"It was to politely and silently remind the minister of how annoyed members are with his reneging on the back-pay agreement," Cloughley said.
Nurses put their own solutions for bolstering the workforce to the minister, asking him if Labour would introduce free study for training or would-be nurses.
"I don't anticipate that we will be providing full fees free to nurses or any other health workers," Little said, but pointed to a first-year-free tertiary policy in place.
Some nurses were disappointed the idea was shut down, including Lucy McLaren.
"So much work's gone on with the construction industry, getting them across the line and trained without fees and I think nursing could certainly benefit from that kind of focus," she said.
Nurses fear they will lose more colleagues to Australia, or from the profession altogether.
Kathryn Chapman is a community nurse in Auckland. She has ruled out moving from her role and region, but worried about the very real impact hospital staff shortages could have on patient outcomes.
"Our Māori whanau will go there and sit there and not tell them how bad it is and they will sit there for hours until it's too late," she said.
Nurses also asked the minister about a four-year fight for gender pay equity, a long running dispute that was now before the Employment Relations Authority.
"There is a disagreement between us," Little said, but pointed out he was limited in what he could say on a matter that was going through a legal process.
"It is certainly my strong preference to find a way to resolve this."
The NZNO Kaiwhakahaere Kerri Nuku told Little nurses had not felt heard in the past and needed to be listened to now.
Little pledged to include nurses in decision making and said he has told Te Whatu Ora to do the same.
"Hopefully it should be easier with a single organisation covering the country, so I have made that expectation very clear."
Nurses said while that was promising, for them it was about the action that followed those words.
"There needs to be a lot more progress fast because the workforce is extremely stressed and exhausted. Any change needs to be sped up," a nurse, who did not wish to be named, said.