April 21, 2022
Māori nurses need fair pay deal
The Nurses Organisation’s kaiwhakahaere Māori says nurses feel betrayed by the pay equity settlement they were offered.
The NZNO is heading to court rather than asking members to vote on the deal, which the Government says is a binding agreement.
Kerri Nuku says while the offer brings rates up to what’s paid for comparable male-dominant occupations, the nurses believe they were promised back pay to 2019.
Nurses also want it to apply not just to the 40,000 nurses employed by DHBs but to the other 20,000 to 30,000 nurses working for other services including Māori health providers.
“Throughout Covid when nurses were standing up beside each other supporting the mega-vaccination clinics, we could often have three or four nurses sitting there getting paid different rates depending on their employer, and that’s not okay when it’s the same skill required to administer the vaccine,” Ms Nuku says.
She says the government appears to have no appetite to address the pay equity issues with Māori providers.