December 05, 2022
Fair tide lifting all boats
Health Minister Andrew Little says under-payment in the Māori health sector affects more than just nurses.
Cabinet has agreed to put another $200 million a year into the health sector to increase the pay of workers in places such as aged-care facilities, hospices and Māori and Pacific health-care organisations.
The announcement upset primary and health care and rural nurses, who say they’re still waiting for a fair pay agreement that will bring them up to the level of nurses working for Te Whatu Ora.
But Mr Little says a lot of the workers for Māori and Pacific health providers were being paid well below the hospital rates of pay.
“One thing that became clear is we had to deal with the underpayment not just of registered nurses in that part of sector but actually healthcare assistants and kaiawhina workers and others and so the package we’ve now got it to help lift the incomes of all those healthcare workers for that part of the sector,” he says.
Minister Little says the funding will get to the private and non-Government employers through changes to their contracts with Te Whatu Ora and with Te Aka Whai Ora – the Māori Health Authority.