About 200 nurses and medical receptionists across 21 clinics throughout the country, who are NZNO members, will get a 3.5 per cent increase in pay, said NZNO’s SWA delegate and bargaining team spokesperson Ilona Killeen.
“The increase gets medical receptionists very close to the living wage which was strongly supported by all of them,” she said.
“Although it is great to have an offer ratified, dissatisfaction remains from most of our member nurses, not helped by primary health members recently settling their collective agreement for eight per cent.”
The bargaining team started talks with SWA in December last year and were about to take strike action after a 2.5 per cent offer, when SWA lifted it to 3.5 per cent.
“Although the offer was ratified, we still have a long way to go in obtaining fair and equal pay for the essential work that is done by our members.”
Killeen said it was very common for SWA nurses and administrative staff to spend time learning new skills and gaining work related qualifications.
For nurses that included learning how to do IUD (intra-uterine device) insertions, smears, STI (sexually transmitted infections) testing and instrument sterilisation. For receptionists that included triaging patients.
‘One of the main reasons for seeking pay parity with their peers was the loss of nurses to primary care and Te Whatu Ora…’
“When they’ve learnt these new skills, many of them will then move to GP practices or similar employers where they are better rewarded for their advanced skills by higher pay.”
One of the main reasons for seeking pay parity with their peers was the loss of nurses to primary health-care and Te Whatu Ora, for higher pay rates, once they receive training for important skills like LARC [long-acting reversible contraception] insertion.”
After eight months of bargaining talks with 477 primary health-care employers, PHC nurses recently got a pay rise of eight per cent (five per cent this month and three per cent in July).
“This high staff turnover creates more pressure on our remaining members.”
All NZNO members working at SWA would each receive a one-off payment of $500.