By RNZ

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 per cent whichever is the higher, effective from April 1, 2024
• A lump sum payment of $750 made to all NZNO members bound by this 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).

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.

Speaking on the announcement, Verrall said she was “delighted” to announce the news.

She said the Government had delivered a 59.9 per cent pay increase for nurses in six years.

“The rates we pay nurses in this country is important for keeping them in our health system,” Verrall said.

“Last year, over 8000 nurses registered for the first time. The government’s aspiration is that the health system is sustainably staffed.

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said Government could afford recent pay increases because there were “contingencies set aside in the Budget [2023].”

“The nurses extracted a good pay deal,” he said.

Verrall said it was possible nurses could be better paid than junior doctors in some instances after the pay increase.

Verrall said, “the important thing is ending gender-based pay differences in the health system.”

Verrall said the collective agreement was backpaid from April 2023.

“I think this is an excellent time to start and stay in New Zealand since we’ve turned around historic pay inequities,” she said.

Regarding dissatisfaction with the agreement from some nurses, Hipkins said there were always trade-offs to make in bargaining: “That’s the essence of bargaining.”

Chief executive Paul Goulter said the close result indicated a continuing level of discontent among members, of which many did not think the offer would help to fix staff shortages affecting care to patients.

“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.

“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,” Verrall said.

“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.”

Goulter said bargaining on the next collective agreement would get underway early next year.

“We will continue making health and safety, safe staffing, nurse-to-patient ratios and cost of living increases our focus. These issues remain vitally important to our members, and we will come out fighting on them.”

- RNZ