Nurses say Health NZ's pay offer does not keep up with the cost of living. (File photo) Photo: RNZ
About 50 theatre nurses and healthcare assistants (HCAs) at Northland's Whangārei Hospital are striking on Tuesday over their ongoing pay dispute with Health New Zealand.
The New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) said perioperative nurses and HCAs from the surgical admission unit, theatre and post anaesthetic units would be taking turns to undertake three four-hour strikes, starting at 7am and ending at 7pm.
The strike comes just a week after more than 200 senior doctors and dentists in Northland striked for 24 hours.
Steph Moule, a theatre nurse speaking in her capacity as an NZNO delegate, said the latest offer by HNZ amounted to a one percent increase this year, and a further one percent next April.
"That doesn't keep up with the cost of living and will see nurses and health care workers and their whānau going backwards financially," she said.
Moule said HNZ's offer for senior nurses was not enticing enough to attract experienced nurses into the roles.
Moule said nurses and HCAs were overworked and burnt out.
"Just about every single day now, all of us theatre nurses get a text sent to us from management to say there's one nurse short for the afternoon shift which is acute theatre - so that has to be covered - and they're looking for volunteers to pick the shifts up," she said.
Moule said she was seeing the impacts of the government not adequately funding the health system and patients suffering because of it.
"If they're getting sicker and sicker before they get to us, then it takes longer for them to recover.
"I had a patient the other day who'd waited four years for a joint replacement surgery," she said.
HNZ's acting northern region deputy chief executive Mike Shepherd said in a statement that they had worked with the union to agree that life preserving services will be maintained during the strike.
"We would like to reassure the public that all our emergency services are continuing and we are available if needed.
"We ask people to continue to attend their appointments unless they have been contacted and rescheduled," he said.
Shepherd said he was disappointed the strike action was happening during bargaining with NZNO.
"We would like to specifically note that while the NZNO have suggested staffing is one of the issues they are striking over, the current vacancy rate in the perioperative departments at Whangarei Hospital is currently only 4 FTE (<2%) and recruitment has occurred to these roles."
Shepherd said he believed HNZ made a fair offer that included targeted and general pay uplifts that were affordable.
He said the offer also adopted the Employment Relation Authority's recommendations following faciliation.
Shepherd said HNZ was committed to a settlement of the collective agreement.
He said nurse salaries had outperformed broader labour market outcomes since 2011.
He claimed that for registered nurses, the top salary step rose by $45,377 between 2011 and 2024 - which included a $16,444 pay equity settlement.
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