Overworked and undervalued nurses, who just want to be paid the same as their DHB counterparts, say they have had enough of their pay falling behind others doing the same job.
Primary Health Care and Plunket nurses walked off the job last Thursday following a year of failed negotiations with their employers.
The nurses say their employers’ inability to deliver pay parity with nurses who work for Health NZ Te Whatu Ora is due to a lack of government funding.
More than 4000 nurses across the country took to the streets to voice their concerns over the lack of pay parity, with local nurses believing there is now up to a 20 per cent gap in what they are paid compared with those at Health NZ.
New Zealand Nurses Organisation organiser Jacki Nixey says the nurses around the country collectively rejected a 2.78 per cent increase, with 92 per cent of members opting to strike.
“We want everybody to get 7.3 per cent, it’s what we should be getting, it’s the rate of inflation.”
She says their pay can be “a good $10 less” than their hospital counterparts.
“We don’t care who pays the money, whether the GPs need to dig a little deeper or the government, we just believe that our nurses deserve it.”
“Pay parity is our optimum goal but right now to be offered 2.78 is just ridiculous,”she says.
A senior nurse is on about $63k, which is ridiculous.”
She says a lot of them have been nursing for more than 20 years.
“They’re passionate about working with the public. They’re part of the community.
“They’re everyone’s first port of call. These nurses are at the forefront of health.
“That DHB nurses can earn significantly more is a fundamental injustice.”
Hannah Rayward and Christie Narain are both nurses at Nelson’s Medical and Injury Centre and say it “sucks” to know they are being paid so much less than those at the hospital.
“My personal opinion is we need to feel valued and respected, one way to do that is by getting paid fairly. The same as the DHB because we have the same skillset and degree, so we need to be paid equally,” Hannah says.
The pair have now been nursing for three years.
“It’s really hard because we’ve both come from working in the DHB so we’ve noticed the change in pay coming from the DHB, but a lot of our skills we learnt there totally complement our work now and it sucks,” Christie says.
“We feel really undervalued, we love our work, we love our jobs. The fact that we’re passionate and want to be there, we should be paid fairly,” Hannah adds.
The pair also worry about PHC nursing not being seen as an appealing career option for new nurses.
