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The recently settled  NZNO nurses' pay deal could see some district health boards face 'budgetary difficulties', says a spokesperson for the DHB chief executives. The New Zealand Nurses Organisation has responded by saying it would be "very disappointed" if a modest pay rise for nurses was used by any DHB to justify cutting staff or services.

About 26,000 DHB registered nurses, enrolled nurses midwives and health care assistants belonging to NZNO on Monday ratified a new two-year collective agreement for a two per cent pay rise this year and two per cent next year (see newsfeed August 25).

Julie Patterson, a spokesperson for the 20 DHBs' chief executives, said nurses and midwives were highly valued for their 'vital' contribution to the health system whether working in hospitals or in the community. 

“DHBs are continually challenged by the need to meet their community’s increasing need for health services within the finite resources," said Patterson in a statement yesterday. "Settling our employment agreement with our largest clinical workforce provides industrial stability and helps us meet this challenge."

She then added that some DHBS would face "budgetary difficulties" as a result of the "increased investment in nursing" negotiated in the new multi-employment collective agreement (MECA). "We are committed to working with our nursing staff to manage this difficulty in a way which will continue to improve the quality of services whilst ensuring nurses and midwives are practicing in a professionally safe work environment."

Lesley Harry, industrial advisor for the NZNO, responded today by saying that DHBs should not imply that NZNO members were "taking from the ill to line their own pockets".

"It would be a pretty cynical move to put the onus of responsibility (for any staff or service changes) on nurses," said Harry.  "We know that the sector is chronically underfunded and that's the problem, not the modest increase that staff are going to be getting."

She also pointed to the problems being reported by emergency departments up and down the country this winter as indicating that there is "no fat in the system". 

“Nursing staff already prop up DHB budgets to the tune of tens of millions of dollars a year in unpaid overtime and breaks not taken. It is cynical to suggest that nurses should now work with DHBs to “manage” their financial difficulties.”

The initial NZNO MECA press release talked about 20,000 DHB members being covered by the MECA while the DHB press release talked about the MECA covering around 30,000 nurses, midwives and health care assistants. Harry said today that the more accurate figure would be that NZNO had around 26,000 DHB MECA members.

She added that the DHBs made clear during bargaining that any deal settled with NZNO would set a precedent for negotiations with other unions so it would not just be NZNO nurses and members who were likely to be offered the increase. (See Newsfeed story about PSA negotiations with DHBs).

The junior doctor MECA settled earlier this year on a 13 month contract including a lump sum, a 1 per cent pay rise backdated to December and a 0.75 per cent rise in November.  That contract expires in February.