November 15, 2018
Hauora staff push for equal pay
Nurses and health care assistants at East Coast public health organisation Ngāti Porou Hauora go on strike for 24 hours on November 27 to protest a breakdown in negotiations over a collective agreement.
The strike will include members of the New Zealand Nurses Organisaton, the Public Service Association, First Union and E Tu.
NZNO kaiwhakahaere Kerri Nuku says registered nurses working for the PHO earn $14,000 less a year than colleagues working in district health boards .
Enrolled nurses earn less than health care assistants whose wages are covered by the Pay Equity Settlement Act.
The current offer is 2 percent or less, with some staff offered no increase at all.
The unions want a fair pay increase for their members and a plan from Ngāti Porou Hauora about how it will address stagnating wages and pay inequities.
Organiser Christina Couling says it’s a clear case of inequity and underinvestment in rural communities that have a significant proportion of Māori and people in poverty with high health needs.
It’s fundamentally unjust when a DHB will not give its health providers the funding required to pay nurses at the same rate as nurses with the same qualifications working in DHBs.
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