The landmark pay settlement covering 75 per cent of district health board staff is timed to expire just short of next year’s election.
The three unions and 21 boards ratified the national terms of settlement (NTOS), resulting in a two per cent pay rise in 2011 for 43,000 district health board staff.
The unions' party to the deal, the New Zealand Nurses Organisation, Public Service Association and Service and Food Workers Union between them represent 75 per cent of DHB staff. Along with nurses and midwives, the deal will cover union members in allied health, clerical and technical staff, orderlies, kitchen staff and cleaners, with a combined pay bill of $2.1 billion or 60 per cent of the boards’ total wage and salary budget.
The agreement runs from April 1 until September 30, 2011 – just prior to when the next general election is due – with the pay rise kicking in on January 1.
The PSA mental health and pubic health nursing agreements were not due to expire until late October and late December this year, but the NZNO agreement expired at the end of March.
This means a nine month wait for a pay rise for NZNO members, but organiser Glenda Alexander says members acknowledge how hard things are in the current financial environment and they need to make responsible decisions.
Peter Glensor, spokesman for the 21 boards, says the health sector would benefit greatly from the NTOS agreement.
“Employment relations bargaining is often a difficult time in the health sector and this landmark agreement will provide the opportunity for energy to be put into improving our health system,” he says.
PSA organiser Ashok Shankar told Nursing Review they were happy to reach a settlement given the difficult financial circumstances most DHBs were in. He said it would create stability within boards so the sector could now concentrate on some of the major issues, using 'management of change' processes.
Alexander says NTOS includes an agreement that boards would work positively with unions to implement safe staffing levels and healthy workplaces. She also says the alternative bargaining framework has worked well in “this instance” but cautions against assuming it would work every time.
The MECA was negotiated under the tripartite Health Sector Relationship Agreement (HSRA) established in 2008 to promote better ways of working.
Summary of NTOS – national terms of settlement
- Terms cover all DHB members of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation, Public Service Association and Service and Food Workers Union.
- A 2 per cent increase on base rates from 1 January, 2011.
- An 18-month agreement term from 1 April, 2010 to 30 September, 2011.
- Non-union DHB employees will have to pay same bargaining fees as union members to access MECA provisions.
- New national and local processes for working through shared issues.
- A new national 'management of change' process.
