Practice nurses seek pay parity

Nurses who work in the primary health sector plan to redouble their efforts to get pay parity with their counterparts in public hospitals, who are paid up to $200 a week more.

The chairwoman of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) College of Practice Nurses, Rosemary Minto, said practice nurses were "adamant" that the time had come for pay parity.

"[They] intend to redouble their efforts to campaign and achieve this," she said at the college's annual meeting in Wellington yesterday.

By July 1, the gap in pay paid to primary health nurses and hospital nurses would be nearly $200 a week.

"We are very clear that our role at the forefront of delivering the primary healthcare strategy is increasingly complex and we expect to be valued for that role," she said.

NZNO is in negotiations with more than 650 primary health employers for a primary healthcare multi-employer collective agreement (MECA).

The NZNO wants the Government to provide the additional funding required for pay parity.

Last month the NZNO delegation told the parliamentary health select committee the estimated cost of pay parity was around $22 million a year.

The majority of NZNO's 2700 members covered by the MECA are practice nurses, with the rest employed by community health centres, iwi and Maori providers and accident and medical centres.

Negotiations resume on June 8 and 9.

- NZPA