Nurses covered by the PSA union are being offered an “improved” one-year rather than two-year pay offer following mediation.
The Public Service Association and District Health Boards today announced a settlement had been reached and the notice of threatened industrial action by 12,000 health workers withdrawn.
Mental health and public health nurses, along with DHB allied health, technical and clerical staff had voted earlier in August to reject a 0.7% pay offer (or 1.5% over about two years). Notice of industrial action has been given by PSA – to start on August 25 with working to rule and building up to strike action on September 10 - was given prior to the two parties going into mediation.
Details of the new pay offer are not being released at present but Ashok Shankar, PSA national organiser for the 20 DHBs, said negotiators believed the improved offer in the current bargaining environment was ‘reasonable enough’ to take back to members.
The offer is also for a 12-month multi-employer collective agreement (MECA) and it is understood that in the case of the two nursing MECAs – the Auckland MECA and the Rest of New Zealand MECA – that they would be backdated to their expiry dates, which were June 30 and April 30 respectively.
Shankar said the deal also offered improvements around training and development, which was an issue of particular concern to nurses.
Graham Dyer, Chair of the District Health Boards’ Employment Relations Strategy Group and Chief Executive of Hutt and Wairarapa DHBs, said that the mediation had been carried out in a “very professional manner” and the PSA team had been “most constructive”.
“Our employees will now be consulted on the settlement and we hope they vote in favour,” said Dyer
PSA national secretary Richard Wagstaff said industrial action had been a last resort after months of bargaining – the first of the five MECAs involved had expired nearly a year ago – and it was pleased sufficient progress had been made to take that option off the table.
Ratification meetings were to begin early next week and the results expected by the end of September.
The two PSA nursing MECAs are understood to between them cover up to 3000 DHB mental health and public health nurses, plus health care assistants, and has an annual pay roll of $211 million. The three other PSA DHB MECAs include a clerical workers’ MECA and MECAs covering allied health and technical staff.
