About 40 paid union meetings are being held across the country this week for members of the Nurses Organisation who work for Te Whatu Ora. Photo: RNZ /Dom Thomas
Nurses will be stopping work at different times this week as part of a fresh round of campaigning for better pay and conditions.
About 40 paid union meetings are being held across the country for members of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation who work for Te Whatu Ora/Health New Zealand.
NZNO chief executive Paul Goulter said the aim was to put pressure on the health agency and the new government to increase funding to the sector and fix the nursing shortage.
He said members had made it clear that they expected pay levels to match the cost of living.
The union's Wellington delegate, Nathan Clark, said the issue of safety in the workplace was also being raised.
"Some of the big issues that we're still trying to negotiate and have discussions with Te Whatu Ora isn't around wages and conditions. Some of those is safety and staffing - that's one of our big issues that's been going on for a number of years."
Research showed that safe staffing and better nurse-to-patient ratios led to better outcomes for patients, he said.
Nurse shortages also needed to be tackled, he said.
"We need to look at serious recruitment and retention issues to train more nurses to attract people into the healthcare industry and to try and bring some of those ones back."
With Te Whatu Ora having been notified of the planned union meetings, Clark said the union anticipated little disruption for patients.
"We are hoping that it will cause minimal disruption to as opposed to other forms of industrial action such as strikes and withdrawal of labour."
Te Whatu Ora's chief people officer Andrew Slater said NZNO told the agency some time ago it intended to hold union meetings as it worked to identify its members' priorities for the coming years.
"Te Whatu Ora recognises its right to do so, and has worked locally with the NZNO to ensure there is no disruption to care," he said.
"We are continually working to improve the experience of our nurses, who are a vital part of our health workforce."
The current NZNO nursing collective agreement expires next October, with Slater saying Te Whatu Ora would continue to work with the organisation on any matters it had raised.