Judge Smith rejected Te Whatu Ora’s arguments that staff did not face “significant risk” and its workplace was safe, saying the evidence “painted a different picture”.
Warrander — who travelled to Wellington for the court hearing as a New Zealand Nurses Organisation delegate — said it was a win “not just for us, but for every other nurse in New Zealand”.
She was working on the understaffed Ward 5 when she got the text about the judgement.
“I just screamed — I gave the other nurse a hell of a fright.”
Other nurses, when they heard, “burst into tears” and hugged each other, she said.
“It’s huge — it’s massive that we’ve actually managed to get this far,” said Warrander.
“We really didn’t know which way it was going to go.”
Warrander said staff weren’t surprised by Te Whatu Ora’s attempt to stop the strike as it would likely lead to widespread industrial action.
“This has opened up the door now.”
However, they were disappointed by its claim staff were safe.
“To us, that’s really a slap in the face,” she said.
“We’ve gone through pretty much hell for the last nine or 10 months, both physically and emotionally and for them to say, ‘Well, actually no you weren’t’ — we found it really disrespectful and hurtful.”
Several Ward 5 nurses were ready to walk out over that claim, she said.
“They were done. They were like, ‘They’ve got no respect for us, they haven’t listened to a single thing we’ve been saying and just giving us lip service’.”
Warrander credited a “huge effort from all the staff on ward 5”, perseverance and documentation.
“Like everything we get told in nursing — documentation. If it’s not documented, it didn’t happen . . . We had the paper trail backing us up,” she said.
“I felt like a bit of a slave driver sometimes. They would be complaining we were short of staff, or it was a horrendous shift, and I’d be asking ‘Have you done the escalation pathway? You really need to do this’. They now know how important it was and the impact it’s had. And we’ve made history. We haven’t been silenced.”
Warrander said it had taken months of perseverance.
“You just have to keep going. There are days you feel it’s just not worth it — but we’ve got there. Just keep persevering.”
While staff were happy to have won the right to highlight the safety issues they had faced every day for months, “it’s kind of sad that we have to be doing this”.
Warrander said it was bewildering that Te Whatu Ora chose to spend thousands in resources and taxpayers’ money on fighting a one-hour strike, instead of putting those resources towards fixing their significant health and safety problems.
After 10 years working at Gisborne Hospital in ICU and the medical ward, she is now one of two NZNO delegates.
Warrander said she could no longer accept the answers being given by Te Whatu Ora.
After a stint owning a Gisborne ice cream shop and being a stay-at-home-mum, she started nursing after a marriage break-up.
“I have four children — one with a disability, so we were at the hospital quite a bit.
“I always wanted to do nursing, but I thought it was out of my reach and then the marriage broke up and I had to become financially responsible for four children.
“I looked at my options and decided to go into nursing as a mature student.”
Born in Hamilton she went to Woodstock Primary School and Hamilton Girls’ High School.
She moved to Gisborne about 20 years ago and has stayed here ever since, she said.
Her hobbies mainly revolve around her grown-up children and two young grandchildren aged one and five.
“I find work takes up most of my time at the moment but I love catching up with friends and family and going to the beach, which is why I love Gisborne so much.”
