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Scoop
11-07-2025
- Health
- Scoop
Hospital Nurses To Take Nationwide Strike Action
Friday, 11 July 2025, 2:05 pm Press Release: New Zealand Nurses Organisation More than 36,000 Te Whatu Ora nurses, midwives, health care assistants and kaimahi hauora have voted to strike for 24-hours after Health NZ failed to address their safe staffing concerns. New Zealand Nurses Organisation Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa (NZNO) Chief Executive Paul Goulter says there was strong support from members to take strike action after a new offer from Te Whatu Ora last week was worse than a previous one in May. "This latest offer from Te Whatu Ora fails to address concerns about safe staffing despite them being raised continually throughout the collective agreement bargaining process. "Patients are at risk because of short staffing. Nurses, midwives and health care assistants are stretched too thin and can't give patients the care they need. This is heartbreaking for our exhausted members who became health care workers because they want to help people. "Te Whatu Ora data obtained by NZNO under the Official Information Act shows between January and November last year, 50% of all days shifts were understaffed across hospital wards in 16 health districts," Paul Goulter says. (see table in editor's notes) To "add insult to injury" members have again been offered a wage increase which doesn't meet cost of living increases and will see them and their whānau go backwards financially, he says. "There were 30,000 New Zealanders who moved to Australia in the past year. We know some of them are burnt out nurses moving for better conditions and wages. "Te Whatu Ora needs to do more to retain our nursing workforce, employ graduate nurses and ensure patients get the care they need. This is about the health and wellbeing of real people and their whānau, not the need to meet some arbitrary budget set by the Government. "It looks like this Government has lost control of health," Paul Goulter says. Notes: -The nationwide strike will be held from 9am on Wednesday 30 July until 9am on Thursday 31 July. -The strike will be a complete withdrawal of labour at every place in New Zealand where Te Whatu Ora provides health care or hospital care services. -Life preserving services will continue to be provided. © Scoop Media
RNZ News
04-07-2025
- Health
- RNZ News
Health NZ accused of dropping 'safe staffing' from nurses pay offer
Photo: RNZ The biggest nurses' union is accusing Health NZ of putting money ahead of safety by dropping a safe staffing agreement from its latest contract offer. Negotiations, which began last October, have stalled over what the Nurses Organisation called "big ticket items" centred on public safety, leading to a nationwide strike in December. NZNO chief executive Paul Goulter said in an earlier offer, Te Whatu Ora committed to acting on safe staffing research they had agreed to do together. "Te Whatu Ora has removed that from their latest offer without explanation. This demonstrates their focus is on cost cutting, not patient safety." A survey of members showed understaffing was putting patients at risk, he said. "Overworked staff are unable to give patients the care they need and leads to staff burnout." Figures for 631 wards using the safe staffing (Care Capacity Demand Management programme) - obtained by the union under the Official Information Act - showed ongoing nursing shortages, Goulter said. "These figures show from January to October last year almost half (or 47.1 percent) of all wards were understaffed 20 percent of the time. That means nurses and health care assistants are working in understaffed wards at least one shift a week. "We are also continuing to see acute levels of understaffing in emergency departments, mental health, women's health and children's wards." In an interview with RNZ's Morning Report programme on Friday, Te Whatu Ora acting chief executive Robyn Shearer said it was difficult to resolve clinical need through collective bargaining. "It's not an easy thing to put into settlement agreement, but we do have operational policies which look at safe staffing and rostering and that continues," she said. However, Goulter said safe staffing had to be central to any agreement. "It is concerning that Robyn Shearer isn't aware CCDM has been in the Te Whatu Ora/NZNO collective agreement since 2010," he said. RNZ asked Te Whatu Ora for its response to the union's claim it was putting cost-cutting ahead of patient safety by removing the commitment to safe staffing, and whether the Care Capacity Demand Management programme was on hold. However, a spokesperson said the agency had nothing further to add to its earlier statement and Robyn Shearer's interview.
Scoop
04-07-2025
- Health
- Scoop
Te Whatu Ora Refuses To Address Patient Safety Concerns
Te Whatu Ora is refusing to address calls to prioritise patient safety by adequately resourcing safe staffing levels, the New Zealand Nurses Organisation Tōputanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa (NZNO) says. A new offer from Te Whatu Ora to NZNO members has failed to include measures to address staffing concerns despite it being raised continually throughout the bargaining process. NZNO Chief Executive Paul Goulter says an earlier offer from Te Whatu Ora committed to acting on safe staffing research the two organisations had agreed to do together. "Te Whatu Ora has removed that from their latest offer without explanation. This demonstrates their focus is on cost cutting, not patient safety. "A survey of our members shows nurses have grave concerns that continued understaffing is putting their patients at risk. Overworked staff are unable to give patients the care they need and leads to staff burnout," Paul Goulter says. Despite claiming there is no nursing shortage, Te Whatu Ora continues to understaff shifts. NZNO has received staffing figures under the Official Information Act for 631 wards using the safe staffing Care Capacity Demand Management programme (CCDM). "These figures show from January to October last year almost half (or 47.1%) of all wards were understaffed 20% of the time. That means nurses and health care assistants are working in understaffed wards at least one shift a week," Paul Goulter says. "We are also continuing to see acute levels of understaffing in emergency departments, mental health, women's health and children's wards." Paul Goulter says Te Whatu Ora Acting Chief Executive Robyn Shearer claimed this morning that clinical need "isn't an easy thing" to resolve through collective bargaining. "It is concerning that Robyn Shearer isn't aware CCDM has been in the Te Whatu Ora/NZNO collective agreement since 2010," he says.
RNZ News
03-07-2025
- Health
- RNZ News
Nurses union dismisses latest pay offer as 'massive backward step'
Indications are the union will vote to strike. Photo: RNZ The nurses union says Health New Zealand's latest pay offer is a "massive backward step" for the health system and patients, and there are "very strong indications" members will want to strike. New Zealand Nurses Organisation chief executive Paul Goulter says Health NZ has "given very little, if anything" and "it really throws into doubt the sincerity of the government in trying to settle this". "We have had clear indication the government is involved - and is increasingly involved - in directing the course of these negotiations. "It's not bargaining. It's just being told what you're going to get and that's it." Health New Zealand told RNZ it was committed to reaching an agreement, but it was also "operating within tight financial constraints". Negotiations began last October, but the union said bargaining had stalled over "big ticket items" centred on public safety and a nationwide strike in December saw a complete withdrawal of labour at every Te Whatu Ora facility. Early last month, a series of stopwork meetings took place to discuss next steps, after the previous offer was turned down. Goulter said the key issue was staffing and making sure there was enough staff to "ensure patient safety", which was "foremost in the minds of our members" during negotiations. "While, obviously, there's a wage element, we're trying to do our best to ensure we get staffing that's appropriate to meet what patients need and we seem to have come up short on that." Health NZ acting chief executive Robyn Shearer said the agency was committed to reaching an agreement with nurses on the collective agreement, but specified it was operating within "tight financial constraints". In May, registered nurses were offered a pay increase of 1 percent in 2025 and 1 percent in 2026. This week's latest offer included a "higher 2025 pay increase of 2 percent", Shearer said, "meaning nurses will get a total 3 percent pay increase over two years". The statement also outlined an offer of two lump-sum payments of $325, which weren't included in the previous offer. Goulter said that wasn't, on the face of it, "better" and explained it was a "regression actually", because of the extended term. The previous offer set a term of two years from the expiry of the current collective agreement, while the latest offer adds three months to the term, effectively reducing the value of the wage increases. Goulter said the first priority was guarantees around staffing and the second was a wage increase that reflected the cost of living. "The government have come up short on this, on both those scores, and it needs to be fixed." He also pointed to the withdrawal of Māori issues the union thought were settled, such as a 'tikanga allowance' for nurses required to use tikanga in their daily work with Māori patients. That and the development of a 'Kaupapa Māori dispute resolution process', which Te Whatu Ora had previously agreed to support, had been removed from the latest offer, without an explanation. Goulter wouldn't speculate on why they had been removed, but said it was "widely known this government is trying to remove any references to addressing Māori health outcomes". "This is probably a very low-rent sort of action by the government to attack that. "Until Māori health outcomes are lifted, this government will stand condemned in the eyes of our members and among the public at large, I'm sure." RNZ requested an explanation from Health NZ about the removal of those elements from the offer. RNZ also approached Health Minister Simeon Brown, who said this offer was "stronger than most public-sector settlements, many of which have included no increase". He also noted the government was committed to "ensuring all New Zealanders are cared for on the basis of need and Health NZ is reflecting this principle in the offers it makes to employees". Overall, Goulter said analysis from union members indicated the new offer was worse than the previous one. "We're undergoing a wide survey at the moment and our members are really clear that this is taking us backwards, not forward." He said the next step was to finalise getting feedback from members, but he has "very strong indications" members wanted to move to action to change these circumstances. "They don't find the circumstances acceptable. At this stage, it looks likely we'll move to a strike ballot." The Health NZ statement said the overall offer meant a new graduate nurse on $75,773 would gain a total pay increase of $8337, or 11 percent, by the end of June 2026. Most registered nurses are on the highest step, with a current salary of $106,739, and under the new offer, their pay will increase by $3224 to $109,963 in the same period. The average salary for both senior and registered nurses, including overtime and other allowances, was $125,662. It also stated the "landscape" for the nursing workforce had changed significantly in recent years, with turnover decreasing from 14 percent in December 2022 to 8.6 percent in December 2024. Health NZ indicated the offer expired at the end of July, if it wasn't ratified before then. "We encourage the union to take this offer to their membership for a vote." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Scoop
27-06-2025
- Health
- Scoop
Government Must Do More To Build Public Health System Capability
A new report by the Auditor-General shows the Government must do more to build capacity in the public health system instead of outsourcing to the private sector, NZNO says. The report titled Providing equitable access to planned care treatment found that despite reforms in recent years designed to end the postcode lottery in the health care system, inequities for Māori, Pacific peoples, those living rurally and disabled people continue. New Zealand Nurses Organisation Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa (NZNO) chief executive Paul Goulter says the report confirms what the public already knows - that elective services in the public system are neither equitable nor timely. "The Auditor-General found the Coalition Government's targets are having a perverse effect whereby some districts are not accepting referrals because they don't have the resources they need to meet the required timeframes for assessing or treating people. "This shows the targets for the political stunts they are. Targets won't work without additional funding to create the capacity which will enable them to be met. "This confirms what our nurses across the health sector are saying and echoes concerns NZNO has been raising for some time." Paul Goulter says the same vulnerable populations missing out on planned care are the same people who are struggling to get in to see their doctors in the first place to be referred. "The Auditor-General is warning the Government that it's push for even greater outsourcing to the private sector could lead to greater inequities. Outsourcing just strips capacity from the under-staffed primary health care sector and the under-funded hospital sector. "There is only one way the Government can fix the health crisis and that's by properly funding and staffing a quality public health system for all," Paul Goulter says.
