New Zealand Nurses Organisation took its fight for pay equity to court, specifically concerning backpay they felt was owed to their members. Photo / Paul Taylor
New Zealand Nurses Organisation took its fight for pay equity to court, specifically concerning backpay they felt was owed to their members. Photo / Paul Taylor
New Zealand’s health authority is asking the Employment Relations Authority for an interim order to increase nurses’ pay, saying nurses “shouldn’t have to wait” for ongoing legal battles.
Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand is seeking an interim order to give “most” nurses’ a pay increase of more than 14 per cent, and a lump sum payment of $3000 on top of thousands of dollars paid to nurses last year.
Te Whatu Ora chief executive Fepulea’i Margie Apa said the health authority had already agreed “in principle” to higher pay rates last year.
Unions took their fight for pay equity to court, specifically concerning backpay they felt was owed to their members.
Te Whatu Ora chief executive Fepulea’i Margie Apa said the health authority had already agreed “in principle” to higher pay rates last year and was seeking an interim order so changes could be made sooner. Photo / Supplied
Margie Apa said, “We spent three years with nurses and their representatives working through a pay equity claim that established sex-based undervaluation.
“In December 2021 we had an Agreement in Principle that would have given around three-quarters of our nursing workforce pay rises of 14 per cent or more.”
She said unions opted out of that agreement and chose legal action instead.
“The ERA has been clear that this process is going to take time and we don’t think nurses should wait any longer for something we all agree is the right thing to do,” Margie Apa said.
She said the pay equity rates could be applied while the ERA continued the ongoing legal process if Te Whatu Ora was successful in getting the interim order.
NZNO took their fight for pay equity to court last month, specifically concerning backpay they felt was owed to their members.. Photo / Mark Mitchell
“Paying out these rates would address a legitimate claim for a key part of the health workforce that has been undervalued for too long,” she said.
In May, the New Zealand Nurses Organization confirmed its members had voted to refer the DHB Nursing Pay Equity settlement - worth about $520 million per annum to the health payroll - to the Employment Relations Authority (ERA).
“This follows widespread concern from members and other affected DHB employees that the DHB employers were not honouring an agreement in the 2020 DHB/NZNO MECA (signed last year) that each employee would receive back pay on the basis of the new rates to 31 December 2019,” an NZNO statement from May said.
“Instead, a series of lump sum payments in recognition of past work has been proposed, amounting to much lower remuneration for many nurses than they would have received had they been back-paid as originally agreed.”
Pay equity means ensuring men and women get the same pay for doing jobs that are different but of equal value and with similar levels of skill and responsibility.
