Health Minister Ayesha Verrall announced 8000 community nurses would start receiving pay rises of up to 15% over the course of April.
“The Government is committed to ensuring nurses are paid fairly and will receive parity with others doing the same or similar work, especially given the current cost of living pressure faced by workers and their families,” Verrall says.
“This is good news for health services which have been impacted by a flow of nurses to jobs in hospitals. It also means the Government is directly supporting nurses caring for people and whānau in very real need.
“While the amount each nurse receives will vary, for some it’s as much as a 15% increase in base pay. Most will now receive base wages at about 95% of hospital- based colleagues,” she claims.
Community nursing covers many of the nurses working in rural and provincial New Zealand.
However, NZNO chief executive Paul Goulter says the increase only brings community nurses up to 95% of what those employed by Te Whatu Ora Health NZ earn.
“It is attempting to level the earnings of similarly qualified nurses and it is not in effect a pay increase,” he told Rural News.
“We also note that 95% won’t close the gap completely but it will go a long way towards it.”
Goulter says the decision to leave GP practice nurses out is ‘regrettable’.
“We note that General Practice nurses are not covered by the Government’s announcement and that’s a real concern to us,” he says. “We will continue to press the case strongly for GP practice nurses to be covered,” he says.
The Government needs to do more to assist those in the profession, Goulter adds.
“Nursing is chronically understaffed.”
He says the Government needs to keep nurses in the profession and attract more by paying enough to show nurses they are valued for the work they do and the incredible pressures they face every day.
“The Government needs to honour the promised back pay from the Pay Equity… negotiations of 2021,” he adds.
In April last year, NZNO initiated a legal review of the Government’s pay equity settlement, due to issues with the back pay settlement. At the time, it was claimed the settlement was not what was expected based on the understanding that nurses would be back paid to 31 December 2019.
Goulter says the issues around the back pay settlement has caused many in the profession to lose faith that the Government has their backs.
“Or sees their value – let alone the fact that they’ve been denied thousands of dollars that they were promised,” he adds.
“The same goes for Pay Parity… Their [the Government’s] continued hesitancy to extend funding for that to practice nurses is another kick in the guts and the last straw for many who are considering leaving.”
