The High Court in Wellington (file image). Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King
A lawyer representing nearly 1500 midwives has told the High Court in Wellington the Crown must be held to account for breaking promises for better pay and contracts over nearly a decade.
The College of Midwives was leading the class action on behalf of Lead Maternity Carers (self-employed midwives) in a bid for "fair and reasonable pay" and a change in contract model.
It claimed previous governments agreed to reform but then never followed through.
During the first day of proceedings on Monday, the College of Midwives' lead counsel, Robert Kirkness spent hours laying out the history of negotiations between midwives and the government, accusing the Crown of not honouring their legal obligations.
The battle dating back to 2015 included two legally binding settlement agreements - neither of which had been delivered on, he said.
For example, the government and midwives had co-designed a new funding model following the first settlement agreement in 2017.
But the Ministry of Health failed to put in a 2018 Budget bid to secure enough money to boost midwives' pay, as outlined in the funding model, said Kirkness.
A letter from the then director-general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield to the College's lawyer revealed that was because officials felt such a bid had "no prospects of success", Kirkness quoted.
Yet it had made a legal promise to do so, he argued.
"People should be kept to their contractual promises, that includes the Crown, and that applies when promises are made to LMC midwives as much as to anybody else."
But the government had "repeatedly baulked" at fair pay, he said.
"And to be clear, fair pay is not a gift. It is payment for hard work, for high risk work, by LMC midwives," he said.
Midwives had agreed to drop legal action and agree to mediation multiple times, said Kirkness.
"[The College] considered ... that mediation offered the most efficient and effective way to achieve real and necessary change for LMC midwives.
"It's clear they were wrong," he said.
A Ministry of Health staffer had even apologised to midwives on behalf of the ministry for not keeping its commitments at the College's conference for LMC midwives in 2018, he said.
But to this day the promises went unfulfilled, and midwives had no choice but to go to court, said Kirkness.
The Crown will briefly lay out its case on Tuesday, before cross-examining the plaintiffs.
Proceedings were expected to take six weeks.
'It shouldn't have to come to this' - midwife
Midwife of 15 years Violet Clapham, who was at the high court to see the case opened, said it had been a long road to get to court.
"To be honest, it's deeply upsetting, just the fact that we've been brought to this point of having to come to court to seek a resolution, and to have this government acknowledge the important contribution and the value of midwives in the community," she said.
"It shouldn't have to come to this point."
It was not just pay and support midwives sought now, she said.
"[We want] respect from the government for the work that we do, and to value mothers and babies in our communities."
The midwives' case was "compelling" and could not be ignored, she said.