Nurses and DHBs to take mediation medicine

The nurses union and their employers have agreed to go into mediation after nurses rejected a $329 million pay offer.

The offer from the country's 21 district health boards would have resulted in pay increases ranging from 6.1 per cent to 27 per cent over three years but nurses instructed the union to gain a better offer or give notice of industrial action.

On Tuesday, New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) manager Laila Harre said the boards' declaration they could not improve the offer and their decision to go public with it amounted to a breakdown in talks.

Yesterday, however, the organisation's advocate, Chris Wilson, said talks with district health board representatives had resumed.

"Considering the events of yesterday [Tuesday], things have progressed constructively," she said.

The parties had jointly agreed to mediation, which was likely to occur when they next met on September 22-23.

The union had not issued a strike notice and intended to "exhaust all possibilities of resolving the issues" before it did so.

District Health Boards New Zealand says it is offering a deal worth $329 million over three years, bringing together five collective agreements in the process.

Lead negotiator Jim Green said the offer would give most nurses increases of more than 20 per cent.

On National Radio Mr Green said the feedback he had received yesterday was that the talks had been constructive and some progress had been made.

"We've put up our best offer but we know that there is communication from the Nurses Organisation about how the offer might be changed and we need to consider that," he said.

Mr Green said earlier the DHBs could never have made such a big offer to nurses and got the money so quickly into their pockets if they hadn't received support from the Government.

The DHBs say that under their offer, a registered nurse with five years' experience would earn the same as a police officer with 11 years' experience.

The registered nurse base pay range would increase from $31,294-$45,000 to $40,000-$53,000.

The union had pushed for a scale from $40,000-$54,000.

A registered nurse in the lower North Island with five years' experience would get a 32 per cent pay rise over three years, increasing from $40,043 now to $49,140 next July and $53,000 in July 2006.

Nurses take home an average of 15 per cent extra in penal rates.

Asked if the Government was prepared to provide more money for nurses' pay, a spokesman for Health Minister Annette King yesterday said Ms King "will not comment on an industrial issue while it's under negotiation".