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Download AudioAbout 4200 primary healthcare and Plunket nurses across New Zealand went on strike this morning for pay parity.
The strike ends at 2pm.
Nurses Organisation kaiwhakahaere Kerri Nuku says employers don’t get enough from government to pay their staff at the same rate as they would earn in state-run hospitals- and the difference is even greater for hauora Maori.
“During Covid these nurses stood up, they were the front line of defence. People that got sick from Covid then went into hospital but the primary healthcare nurses, the Plunket nurses, the Maori and iwi providers all stood up and went out to deliver services in the community. If they aren’t getting paid what they deserve, there is a fundamental injustice in this,” she says.
Ms Nuku says the nurses don’t want to compromise the already strained health system and community access to health services, so just 10 percent of the 40,000 affected nurses went out as representatives of the wider workforce.
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