August 11, 2015
Maori nurses paid less
A nurses's conference over the weekend heard how structural discrimination within the health sector is seeing Maori nurses paid significantly less than than their district health board colleagues.
The Nurses Organisation kaiwhakahaere Kerri Nuku says nurses working for Whanau Ora agencies may earn up to 25 percent less than their colleauges working in mainstrean forcing some of them to take second jobs to make ends meet.
She says indigenous health requires an indigenous workforforce and the challenge is how we get and maintain that workforce through what is predominently a mainstream system full of structurally discriminatory practices which as the Human Rights Commission has said have been a long time in the making.
Kerri Nuku says the problem comes down to Maori health providers being funded less than their Pakeha counterparts.
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