Nurses to fight for pay parity

The Nurses' Organisation launches a major fair-pay campaign today - this time for nurses working in the community.

The nurses' union is going into bat for its members in GP clinics seeking equal pay with their public hospital counterparts.

Most of the country's 20,000 public hospital nurses and midwives won a pay rise of around 20 per cent in February's historic deal with district health boards. But the 5500 nurses working outside the public hospital system - mostly registered nurses working in GP-owned general practices - were left out in the cold.

Already paid about 5 per cent less than hospital nurses, primary healthcare nurses will earn an estimated 25 per cent less once the pay increases for hospital nurses are fully phased in by July next year. Registered nurses in the community earn between $33,000 and $46,000, whereas public hospital nurses will earn between $40,000 and $54,000 once their increases take full effect.

Nurses' Organisation spokeswoman Laila Harre said nurses in the community - who the Government relied on to implement its Primary Health Care Strategy - would migrate to hospitals. "If nurses are going to be the centre of primary health and primary health is going to be the centre of Labour's health policy, they're going to have to have pay parity if they're going to retain the workforce," she said.


- HERALD ON SUNDAY