Latest news with #NewZealandNursesOrganisation
RNZ News
28-05-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
370 Auckland nurses refusing to take on call shifts in protest over pay, chronic understaffing
Health NZ began renegotiating its collective agreement with New Zealand Nurses Organisation in September 2024. Photo: 123RF A nurse at Starship hospital says on call nurses are being asked to cover staff shortages as well as high priority situations. Auckland theatre nurses - a total of 370 - will refuse to take on call shifts over the next month in protest over pay and chronic understaffing . The strike began on May 26 and would run until June 23. Affected hospitals included Auckland City, Starship and Greenlane. Perioperative nurse Haim Ainsworth told Morning Report Health New Zealand's latest offer of a yearly one percent rise - over two years - was "preposterous". He said perioperative nurses would be there for loss of life or high priority cases, but they needed to pressure Health NZ to ensure the on call system was not being used to cover staff shortages. "What is happening - in some areas of the system - is that shifts end at, say, 5pm but staff who are on call are being used to run longer lists that go beyond the cut-off time. "So they've already worked their full shift and then they have to stay or then they're called back to finish the regular work of the day," Ainsworth said. Health NZ began renegotiating its collective agreement with New Zealand Nurses Organisation in September 2024. But - after little progress was made during bargaining earlier in the year - the Employment Relations Authority were called in to facilitate the process. They found there was no reason to question the economic rationale behind the offer nor was there a rationale to support seeking further funding from the government. Ainsworth said the authority's stance was "disappointing". "They basically said 'look the government's got no money. You should just take the one percent and be happy'. As every New Zealander knows a one percent increase doesn't keep track with the cost of living or inflation. "It would mean some of us - not all of us - would maybe get an extra $1000 a year," Ainsworth said. Health New Zealand Northern Region deputy chief executive Mike Shepherd. Photo: Supplied But Health New Zealand Northern Region deputy chief executive Mike Shepherd said the perioperative nurses were asking to be paid more than colleagues in similar roles about the country. He said he was unsure why the perioperative nurses were taking action ahead of the current national bargaining process with the Nurses Union. "We have a great respect for the work they do and we absolutely value that. "If they stay late for a shift they get paid overtime. If they get called back they get paid a minimum of three hours double time so I think they are getting remunerated for returning to work for these acute cases," Shepherd said. He said the perioperative vacancy rates were currently less than four percent and some of those roles were being held open to accommodate new graduate nurses. "This is not an area where we have large vacancies. We obviously have day to day staffing challenges like any large business and 24 hour business does, but I think that we provide a good environment and we really value our teams," Shepherd said. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
28-05-2025
- General
- RNZ News
Hundreds of Auckland nurses start on-call strike
Theatre nurses at Auckland City Hospital say there are chronic staff shortages in the city. File photo. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi More than 370 theatre nurses at Auckland hospitals have begun a month-long on-call strike, in response to under-staffing concerns. Members of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation working at Auckland City Hospital, Starship Hospital and Greenlane Hospital are refusing to be on-call from now until 23 June. Starship nurse Haim Ainsworth said there were chronic and ongoing staff shortages in Auckland's hospitals. He said nurses were forced to work longer than they should, were not being paid properly for overtime, and patients were being put at risk. Te Whatu Ora has been approached for comment. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Scoop
22-05-2025
- Health
- Scoop
Magical Thinking On Hospital Projects: NZNO
Press Release – New Zealand Nurses Organisation NZNO Primary Health Care Nurses College chair Tracey Morgan says the Coalition Government has 'utterly failed' to address the crisis in primary and community care which is leaving New Zealanders unable to see their GPs when they need to. Low-paid women health workers have paid for the Coalition Government's Budget centrepiece – tax incentives for business, New Zealand Nurses Organisation Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa (NZNO) says. Budget 2025 is largely funded through $12.8 billion saved by gutting the pay equity scheme and scuppering 33 claims, including 13 from NZNO members across the health system including in the care and support, Plunket, primary care and hospice sectors. NZNO Primary Health Care Nurses College chair Tracey Morgan says the Coalition Government has 'utterly failed' to address the crisis in primary and community care which is leaving New Zealanders unable to see their GPs when they need to. 'There is nothing in this Budget to fix the chronic staff shortages that last year resulted in 36% of general practices being unable to take new enrolments. The Government chose not to close the 10% wage gap forcing primary and community care nurses to leave their communities for better paid hospital jobs. 'That would have been a $52.3 million investment with research showing the benefits would have been 14-fold. Instead, the Coalition Government has enabled further privatisation of the health system by giving $164 million to mainly Australian-owned urgent care franchises most New Zealanders can't afford to go to. 'There is also nothing in this Budget for iwi and Māori health providers who receive the lowest levels of funding in the health system,' Tracey Morgan says. NZNO president Anne Daniels says the Coalition Government's estimates it can build new facilities or remediate old ones at four hospitals, increase inpatient beds across New Zealand and fund small-scale infrastructure projects for $1 billion is simply 'magical thinking'. 'The Finance Minister has found her unicorn after all. This is kicking the can down the road for a future government to acknowledge it can't be done. 'There is no new operational spending for hospitals. The $1.37 billion for cost pressure funding announced in last year's Budget is not enough to keep the lights on. Our health system is desperately understaffed, and there is no money here to escape the ongoing and entrenched hiring freeze in the sector. 'The health system is not over budget as the Government claims. It is under-funded and under-resourced. Patients need health investments based on their care needs, not an arbitrary bottom line. 'Nicola Willis was right. This is a no BS Budget – a no basic services Budget,' Anne Daniels says.
Scoop
21-05-2025
- Health
- Scoop
Assault Reignites Christchurch Hospital Parking Woes
New Zealand Nurses Organisation Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa (NZNO) is concerned that after-hours attacks on Christchurch Hospital staff returning to their cars have continued without a proper long-term solution to parking in sight. It follows the recent assault on a student midwife going back to her car from Kurawaka Waipapa. NZNO Christchurch delegate Al Dietschin says staff have raised concerns about parking at the hospital for more than a decade, possibly longer, and while there has been some action from Te Whatu Ora, it is not nearly enough to prevent the assaults from persisting. "How many incidents do we need to have before the employer acts in the interest of staff in accordance with the Health and Safety Employment Act? "They have to provide a safe work environment. They always say health and safety of staff is important, but these after-hours assaults continue to happen." Al Dietschin says the Tū Waka Waipapa building that opened opposite the hospital in November 2023 provides parking, but costs about $25 a day, which is unaffordable for most workers. In wake of many assaults in the past, the hospital provides a minibus shuttle between 9pm and 1am, but staff are often made to wait too long for this arrive. "Staff are reportedly walking to their cars because they're made to wait 30 minutes or more after working the late shift for the shuttle to arrive. Staff don't feel safe walking to cars after their shift or early morning in the dark, but they're sometimes forced to." Another shocking decision recently limits emergency department parking for lead maternity carers (community midwives) to five hours, he says. "This used to be available for unlimited time. Now they're forced to ask core staff to relieve them in the middle of a patient's labour so they don't get fined. That's not good for the safety of their patients." Al Dietschin says the solution is simple from the staff's perspective. "Staff only want safe after hours parking close to hospital, and we don't want to break the bank for this to happen."
Scoop
12-05-2025
- Health
- Scoop
Struggling Hospice Nurses Shattered By Pay Equity Changes
Press Release – New Zealand Nurses Organisation NZNO delegate and hospice nurse Donna Burnett says hospice nurses are demoralised and angered by last weeks announcement. This year's Hospice Awareness Week comes as hospices struggle to keep their doors open because of a lack of Government funding and nurses' chances of fair pay shattered by the removal of their pay equity claim, NZNO says. The New Zealand Nurses Organisation Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa (NZNO) hospice pay equity claim was filed in late-2023 covering 27 hospices employing its members. That claim, alongside nine others for NZNO, were thrown out by the Government last week with its to pay equity law changes. Hospice New Zealand today said Te Whatu Ora had refused to adjust their funding so hospice nurses and health care assistants could be paid the same as their hospital counterparts. Hospices could not afford to fund the widening pay gap as at least 35% of hospice nurses' wages came from fundraising and donations because of chronic underfunding of the sector. NZNO delegate and hospice nurse Donna Burnett says hospice nurses are demoralised and angered by last week's announcement. 'Hospices are already facing service cutbacks, with a strong possibility of closures in small region because of the current lack of funding. It is not sustainable. On top of this, at the swipe of a pen and a blink of an eye, Government pulled pay equity out from under us.' Due to New Zealand's aging population, the crisis for hospices will only worsen if the Government doesn't step up and properly fund the sector, she says. 'We are meant to be raising awareness about hospices this week, but the reality is people need to be aware of what's happening to us nurses and health care assistants because it impacts our patients. 'Without pay equity and a fully funded sector, hospices will keep losing nurses and health care assistants to better paying hospitals or overseas health systems. 'Dying New Zealanders and their whānau have enough to worry about without not being able to access hospice care because of short staffing which is a direct result of Government decisions,' Donna Burnett says.
