The NZNO and negotiating team for the 20 District Health Boards entered mediation on January 31 after NZNO’s DHB nurses, midwives and health care assistants voted to reject the initial pay offer made in November.
The NZNO negotiating team said in an update that it presented the findings of its online member survey to last week’s mediation, including that members wanted an increased pay offer, safe staffing, a shorter term for the agreement (the original offer was for a 33 month term), and a firmer timeframe for pay equity.
“We were clear that any revised offer will require additional funding as trading off improvements from the previous offer would not be acceptable,” said the update to the about 27,000 members that will be covered by the new DHB/NZNO MECA (multi-employer collective agreement).
The original pay offer – a two per cent increase, backdated to November 6, for the majority of nurses and midwives covered by the MECA and further two per cent pay rise in August 2018 and August 2019 – was widely viewed by nurses as too little too late. Members were also divided on how quickly the initial offer’s agreement to start negotiating a pay equity settlement would deliver results for nurses.
The NZNO negotiators said the DHBs were now “going to look at their ability to reconstruct an offer that addresses NZNO concerns”. The DHBs were due to report back to NZNO by February 26 and members were to be updated on the outcome prior to a series of member meetings running from March 6 to March 23.
“Should DHBs agree to an improved offer the update will include the detail the offer for members to vote on at the meetings,” said the update.
Prior to mediation the union indicated that it would not rule out using the March meetings to vote on industrial action, if a deal couldn’t be reached that it believed members would be ready to accept.
Late last month Health Minister David Clark told Nursing Review that he understood nurses’ and other health workers hopes for better salaries under the new Government but the was reality was that “not everyone’s expectations will be met”.
]]>Survey respondents were also found to be divided over what gains the the proposed pay equity process –due to start after the new contract is settled – would deliver and how quickly.
The online survey followed the New Zealand Nurses Organisation’s District Health Board members voting to reject the 20 DHB’s MECA (multi-employer collective agreement) offer with strong social media feedback that many felt the offer fell short of reflecting the skills and increasing workloads of nurses.
The union and employer negotiating teams were starting mediation today with the union not ruling out a vote on industrial action if a deal can’t be reached that members are ready to accept.
In a survey summary to members the NZNO negotiating team said safe staffing was also reiterated as a key issue by members concerned about continuing to work “under-staffed and under pressure”.
Other issues highlighted was that members felt back pay or a lump sum was important (the current agreement expired on July 31 last year), and most members favoured a two year term (the original offer was for a 33 month term).
The initial pay offer included an agreement to start negotiating a pay equity settlement and the survey found that 80 per cent of respondents backed a strategy to have pay parity with medical radiation technologists (MRTs) and allied health professionals. The survey showed members were divided on whether the pay equity could deliver but survey respondents had indicated that a better base scale pay offer could increase their support of the proposed pay equity process.
A petition seeking public support for a better pay offer for district health board nurses had also reached nearly 13,800 signatures as mediation got underway today.
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Health Minister David Clark says he understands nurses’ and other health workers’ hopes for better salaries under the new Government, but the reality is that “not everyone’s expectations will be met”.
He was responding to questions from Nursing Review and online health hub Health Central about New Zealand Nurses Organisation members rejecting the 20 district health boards’ pay offer of roughly two per cent a year, amidst expectations that the incoming Government may be more open to funding a more “respectful” offer.
Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter, who is also Associate Minister of Health (but in that capacity has no responsibility for wage settlements), says she is aware that nurses’ expectations are high and meeting everybody’s expectations poses “fiscal challenges” as there is a lot of investment that the new Government needs to catch up on.
Clark said he would not comment on the negotiations, which are due to go to mediation at the end of the month – with NZNO not ruling out industrial action if a better offer was not reached – or pre-empt the mediation outcomes.
“But I can understand firstly why those nurses might have hopes of better things. This is a government that wants to see a more sustainable health sector. We don’t intend to run it down like our predecessors did. We want to ensure there are healthy workplaces and safe staffing and more sustainable funding over time.”
He said he needed to better understand why the NZNO negotiating team thought the initial pay offer would be accepted by members and why it was rejected.
“But the public also has an expectation based on the priorities outlined and the promises made that there will be more services delivered.”
“So the money that we pledged to put into healthcare won’t all go into salary raises,” said Clark. “Not everyone’s expectations will be met. I think that is the reality and I think we need to be upfront about that. But a Labour Government recognises the need to have a sustainably funded workforce and the need to make sure we have safe staffing and healthy workplaces.”
Nurses and midwives underpaid
Genter said as Minister for Women her number one priority was new pay equity legislation and working to close the gender pay gap in the public service.
“Female-dominated professions like midwives and nurses have structurally lower pay,” said Genter. “Those professions have been underpaid and undervalued because they are female-dominated.”
She said where there were MECAs (multi-employer collective agreements) for specialists or doctors the gender pay gap had disappeared, because so many more women were pursuing medicine and becoming specialists.
“But across the health workforce it is not necessarily the case and there is still more work to be done to rectify the pay gap.” She is aware of the NZNO’s pay equity claim for its DHB nurses, midwives and health care assistants. She said such pay equity claims are not her responsibility alone, but as Minister for Women she is working with other ministers on pay equity legislation to progress such claims (see below).
“Obviously this government is very supportive of closing the gender pay gap and lifting pay for the lowest paid workers, and valuing all of the professions that add so much to life in Aotearoa – we can’t do without them.”
Genter, in her role as Associate Minister of Health, spoke to Health Central about her two new delegations for health – population health (built environment) and climate change – along with women’s health, sexual health and disability services.
Next step to new pay equity legislation
This week Genter, in her role as Minister for Women, and Iain Lees-Galloway, the Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety, announced the reconvening of the Joint Working Group on Pay Equity Principles as the first step to new pay equity legislation.
The original group was set up in 2015 to develop principles to guide pay equity implementation, but Galloway said these principles had been ‘undermined’ by the pay equity bill introduced in July last year by the former government, which would have made pay equity claims tougher for women. The bill was scrapped by the incoming government in November.
The new working group has been charged with considering the issues around how to determine the merit of a pay equity claim and how to select appropriate male comparative professions/trades to compare the pay rates of women workers who lodge pay equity claims.
The group, facilitated by Traci Houpapa, meets today, January 24, and is due to make its recommendations to Ministers by the end of February. “Once we receive the recommendations, we will work to develop pay equity legislation which we expect to introduce mid-2018,” said Genter.
The tripartite partners include government representatives, unions (led by the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions) and employers (led by BusinessNZ and the Employers and Manufacturers Association).
]]>Memo Musa, the chief executive of NZNO, said the organisation welcomed the inquiry’s terms of reference and was pleased that the inquiry was due to report back by the end of October.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced the inquiry yesterday, to be chaired by former Mental Health Commissioner Ron Patterson, saying nothing was off the table for the review, which has a particular focus on ensuring equity of access to mental health and addiction services and improving outcomes. (See inquiry details and team members below.)
Musa said that currently the mental health workforce was not well co-ordinated and he hoped the inquiry would widen early to take in workforce issues, as NZNO believed it was important that the workforce was resourced well so it had the diverse skills and capacity to respond to mental health needs.
The inquiry’s terms of reference call on the inquiry team’s report to help inform the Government’s future decisions for the mental health and addiction system, including workforce planning and training and the funding of mental and addiction services.
“The initiative to have more nurses in schools and extending free doctor’s visits for youth will help stop the flow of childhood mental health stress moving onward to become major mental health issues,” said Musa.
“Nurses have a role to play in mental health as they are working with people, whānau and communities every day. The focus on the elderly, children and youth is most welcome in the scope of the inquiry.”
He added that there was “no health without mental health”. “Mental health is too important to be left to health professionals alone and needs to be joined up with community and government services.”
Alcohol addiction needs to be on table
Alcohol Healthwatch and Māori public health organisation Hāpai Te Hauora have also welcomed the inquiry and called on it to address the growing problem of the link between alcohol and poor mental health.
“The Government was right to include addictions in the inquiry into mental health,” said Anthony Hawke of Hāpai Te Hauora. “In 2012 we had the chance to raise the price of alcohol and save lives. We didn’t. Our communities paid the price. Now is the time for this to be remedied.”
Executive Director of Alcohol Healthwatch Dr Nicki Jackson agreed. “Alcohol has become considerably more affordable since our new laws were put in place. Drinking has become worse. The Government has stated that all solutions to improve our mental health are on the table – research shows that one solution to our shameful suicide rates is to raise the price of alcohol. This approach is particularly effective in reducing suicide among young males.”
Inquiry into Mental Health and Addiction
The basics
Purposes of the inquiry
Hear the voices of the community (including consumers, families and providers of services) on New Zealand’s current approach to mental health and addiction and what needs to change.
Report on how New Zealand is preventing mental health and addiction problems and responding to people’s needs.
Identify unmet needs (across full spectrum from mental distress to enduring psychiatric illness) and which groups of people present the ‘greatest opportunity’ to make a difference to.
Consider previous investigations, reviews, reports and consultation processes relating to mental health and addiction, including the Peoples’ Mental Health Report (2017) and Blueprint II: Improving mental health and wellbeing for all New Zealanders (2012).
Recommend specific changes to New Zealand’s approach to mental health – with a particular focus on equity of access, community confidence in system and better outcomes for Māori and other groups with disproportionally poorer outcomes.
Inform the Government’s decisions on future arrangements for mental health and addiction system including:
Scope of the inquiry:
Inquiry members:
Professor Ron Paterson (Chair) was the Health and Disability Commissioner 2000-2010 and is currently a professor of law at the University of Auckland and Chair of the New Zealand Centre for Human Rights Law, Policy & Practice Advisory Board. He is recognised internationally for his expertise in patients’ rights, regulation of health practitioners and healthcare quality improvement, and has chaired several major health system reviews in Australia.
Dr Barbara Disley is a former director of the Mental Health Foundation (1991-1996) and a former executive chairwoman of the Mental Health Commission (1996-2002). She is currently chief executive of Emerge Aotearoa, which provides a wide range of community-based mental health, addiction, disability support and social housing services nationwide.
Sir Mason Durie is a psychiatrist and professor of Māori Studies at Massey University. An expert in Māori health and culture, he has served on a range of health-related committees, councils and advisory groups, including the Mental Health Foundation (1976-1980) and the National Health Committee (1998-2000), and was a Families Commissioner (2003-2007).
Dean Rangihuna is a Māori consumer adviser for the Canterbury DHB with a particular focus on mental health services. He has consumer/lived experience and knowledge of Māori mental health models.
Dr Jemaima Tiatia-Seath has research expertise and experience in Pacific mental health and suicide prevention. She is currently acting co-head of the School of Pacific Studies at the University of Auckland and is a senior lecturer for Pacific health at the School of Population Health.
Josiah Tualamali’i is chair of the Pacific Youth Leadership and Transformation Charitable Trust. In 2016 he received the Prime Minister’s Pacific Youth Award for Leadership and Inspiration and he is a semi-finalist for Kiwibank Young New Zealander of the Year (2018).
Source: Inquiry Cabinet Paper and Terms of Reference
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WHERE TO GET HELP:
If you are worried about your or someone else’s mental health, the best place to get help is your GP or local mental health provider. However, if you or someone else is in danger or endangering others, call police immediately on 111.
OR IF YOU NEED TO TALK TO SOMEONE ELSE:
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The “I heart Nurses” petition was launched just before Christmas and NZNO industrial advisor Chris Wilson said it was pleased with the take-up over the holiday period and expected to well-exceed its original target of 10,000 signatures. The total had reached more than 9,200 on January 17.
The petition followed the NZNO’s District Health Board members voting to reject the 20 DHB’s MECA (multi-employer collective agreement) offer with strong social media feedback that many felt the offer fell short of reflecting the skills and increasing workloads of nurses. The union and employer negotiating teams are now heading for mediation on January 31 with the union not ruling out a vote on industrial action if a deal can’t be reached that members are ready to accept.
The “I heart nurses” petition is part of the union’s campaign to garner public support in the lead-up to the mediation and argues thats that nurses want pay rates that provide for “a sustainable workforce and healthy workplaces”.
“DHBs need to pay nursing and midwifery teams delivering our healthcare services fairly for their skills,” says the petition’s preamble. “We need to retain and attract enough healthcare professionals to meet our country’s growing health needs and ensure we all have a high-quality, safe and modern healthcare system in Aotearoa New Zealand.”
The petition is directed to the DHB chief executives and says nurses, midwives, and healthcare assistants are the ‘heart of our public healthcare services” and calls on the CEOs to help keep “local health services safe and sustainable” by delivering nurses a better deal.
You can view the petition here.
]]>In mid-December the New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) announced that its nurse, midwife and healthcare assistant DHB members had voted to reject the proposed new DHB MECA (multi-employer collective agreement) during 400 meetings held across the country.
The pay offer – a two per cent increase, backdated to November 6, for the majority of nurses and midwives covered by the MECA, and further two per cent pay rise in August 2018 and August 2019 had been widely criticised in social media by some of the 27,000 NZNO members covered by the proposed deal as being too low and not adequately reflecting the pressure and stress they had worked under in recent years (see details of the rejected offer here).
In its update to members on December 13, the NZNO negotiating team said the rejection of the proposed MECA showed that DHB members believed a “better offer was worth the very serious consideration of possible industrial action”.
It said the team would “take every opportunity in front of us” to achieve a better offer through mediation (due to begin January 31) without resorting to industrial action. But it had scheduled a series of meetings starting in late February to update DHB members on the negotiation’s progress and those meetings could be used to hold a ballot on industrial action.
“Should industrial action occur, we will work with DHBs to provide essential services for people who need them,” said the MECA update. “We are aware of your professional commitment to your patients and although it hasn’t happened for a long time, we have experience of industrial action and balancing the two.”
A spokesperson for the DHBs’ negotiating team has yet to respond to Nursing Review’s request for comment.
NZNO industrial advisor Chris Wilson said participation is going well in its online survey of DHB members. The survey is being used to get formal confirmation from DHB members of the anecdotal feedback negotiators had received on what were the major issues that members wanted addressed when the negotiations go to mediation on January 31. The survey went online just before Christmas and is due to close at 4pm on Thursday, January 18.
Wilson said the survey did not include a question on whether to pursue industrial action if mediation failed to meet a resolution, and instead focused on getting formal feedback on what was needed to reach a MECA deal that members would accept.
She said the NZNO negotiators at this point were very much committed to the mediation process. “Obviously we will see what occurs on Jan 31.” A reserve day for mediation has also been set for early February.
“Industrial action does remain a possibility if we’re not able to secure an outcome through mediation that members are comfortable with,” said Wilson. But she said it was hopeful that once employers saw the issues highlighted by members in its online survey the negotiations “might make some grounds”.
The December 13 MECA update to NZNO DHB members said that it understood that the members key reasons for rejection were as follows:
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Parliament is today to sit under urgency to debate the Families Package (Income Tax and Benefits) Bill. The bill would bring into effect the package announced yesterday that aims to bring 88,000 children out of poverty through a combination of higher Accommodation Supplement changes, more generous Working for Families scheme, a “Best Start” payment for parents of young babies, and a “Winter Warmer” grant for beneficiaries and superannuitants.
Memo Musa, chief executive of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation said nurses had seen an increase of child illness due to poverty and damp, poor living conditions so welcomed the package’s increases – particularly the Winter Energy Payment.
“Increasing money directly to families may well be the difference to having to access a health professional for some illnesses because affording healthier food or extra medicines and adequate, quality clothing can help to prevent illness.”
“Kiwi kids suffering from preventable illnesses are often linked directly to living in poverty. Increasing minimum wage, reduced health check fees, increase in parental leave and the Family Package are all key steps to reducing illness that nurses are saddened to see on a daily basis,” Memo Musa said.
Radha Balakrishnan, Plunket’s chief strategy and performance officer, said with Plunket nurses seeing 9 out of 10 babies born in New Zealand they see first-hand the impact of poverty and poor housing on child health – “particularly on Māori and Pacific communities who bear the brunt of this burden on our children”.
“We welcome Government action to level the playing field, and address the inequity of health and wellbeing outcomes among New Zealand’s tamariki and whanau,” she said. “We will be looking for further action to tackle systemic issues that are having an unacceptable impact on children’s health.”
Paula Bennet, National’s spokesperson for children, described the Government’s package as bluster and said National’s Families Income package was projected to lift 50,000 children out of poverty on April 1 2018 and it had committed to a further package in 2020 that would have had a similar effect.
“Labour has reverted to type by throwing billions of dollars at poorly targeted hand-outs, including over $3000 baby bonuses that go to everyone, irrespective of whether they need it or not, said Bennett. “During our term in Government, the number of kids in material hardship fell by nearly 40 per cent to 135,000 in 2016.
Andrew Becroft, the Children’s Commissioner, described the package as “really positive steps” as raising family incomes, enabling warmer and more support for the first year of a child’s life would contribute to improving outcomes for children.
He said the office would be monitoring whether the projected aim of raising 88,000 children out of poverty by 2021 was successful through its ongoing Child Poverty Monitor (which has just received continued funding from the JR McKenzie Trust for a further three years). “We look forward to seeing the significant improvements in the wellbeing of children that this package promises.”
Associate Professor Susan St John, the economics’ spokesperson for the Child Poverty Action Group, welcomed the package as a “long overdue response to the disastrous child poverty experienced since the 1990s”.
“But there are still some complex issues and CPAG would welcome working with Government on ways to simplify and extend the package,” said St John. “We would especially urge the Government to help the very worst-off children who are still excluded from the full package.”
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The DHBs’ offer – that had been endorsed by the New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) negotiating team – had been widely criticised in social media by some of the 27,000 nurses, midwives and health care assistant members of NZNO covered by the proposed deal.
The pay offer – a two per cent increase, backdated to November 6, for the majority of nurses and midwives covered by the MECA and further two per cent pay rise in August 2018 and August 2019 –appeared to be seen as too little too late. The offer also included a small lump sum of $350 and an agreement in principle by the 20 DHBs to progressing a pay equity claim with negotiations to begin in the year. (See details of the rejected offer here)
Harry acknowledged that the members rejection reflected their views that the offer “failed to respect nurses, midwives and health car assistants and the huge effort and value they bring to patients and our communities”. She said the next formal step was likely to be mediation between NZNO and the DHBs. Nursing Review has sought comment from the DHBs’ negotiating team spokesperson but they had not responded at this point.
Nurses on social media had expressed disappointment and frustration that the DHBs’ offer was about or below inflation, it didn’t reflect growing pressures and responsibilities placed on nurses in the workplace and it wouldn’t reinstate the pay relativity lost by this year’s $2 billion pay equity settlement to care and support workers in the aged care and disability sector.
Harry also acknowledged that it appeared members did not have confidence that the agreement in principle by DHBs to start pay equity negotiations would see extra money in their pockets soon.
“I think members lost a lot of trust and confidence over the years of austerity,” said Harry. She said the negotiating team had supported the DHBs pay offer on the basis of the DHBs seeing merit in the pay equity claim and the new government’s support of pay equity.
“The negotiating team were certainly more optimistic (about the likelihood of getting a pay equity settlement) than the feedback we’ve got from members,” said Harry. “And we will take the opportunity between now and we get to meet with our members next to fully inform them of what the pay equity process is.”
Harry would not disclose whether voters resoundingly or narrowly rejected the offer. But she did say it was pleased with the turnout at the 400 meetings held across DHBs in the past few weeks which was probably the highest turnout in more than a decade.
Posters on social media in the past few weeks – both for and against the offer – had called on nurses to turn up to meetings to be briefed on the details and make their voice count.
Harry said anecdotally it had a sense of what offer might be acceptable for members but it was first going to canvas members, via an electronic survey, so the negotiating team could be “absolutely confident” on what members would be prepared to ratify. The aim was to post the survey before Christmas.
She said the timing of the mediation was not known yet but NZNO was setting up a series of member meetings in late February that would either be follow-up meetings to discuss next steps or “all going well” might have a ratifiable offer to put to members by then.
“Of course nurses and DHB employers will be doing their best to reach an employment agreement acceptable to both parties,” said Harry.
“Consideration of industrial action will only occur if NZNO and DHBs cannot achieve a resolution of the issues members have raised,” Harry confirmed.
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The Healthy Homes Guarantee Bill was passed late last week – the second major law to be passed by the new Government – and will come into effect in 2019. The law enables the Government to set standards for rental housing quality including heating, insulation, ventilation, draught stopping, drainage and moisture.
Memo Musa, chief executive of the New Zealand Nurses’ Organisation, said NZNO congratulated the government on the passing of the bill as it was well documented that poor housing took its toll on the health of children in particular.
Preventable diseases such as skin infections, rickets and respiratory diseases should not be a feature for any child growing up in Aotearoa,” he said with access to decent housing and healthcare being basic human rights.
“The high cost of heating a home that is almost impossible to keep warm can also leave families that are renting in poverty, and this in turn leads to children becoming malnourished and ultimately presenting to nurses for care.
“The whole notion of a rental warrant of fitness is a good way forward. This will help to keep people out of hospital and in their communities living healthy lives,” said Musa. He said the 2017 winter saw an increase in the numbers of people coming into emergency departments over previous years.
“Nurses hope that landlords will get cracking and get their houses sufficiently insulated and ventilated before next winter and not wait until it is illegal not to in 2019,” he said.
Housing Minister Phil Twyford, after the passing of the bill on November 39, that “most landlords do a good job, but the fact is the lack of legal standards means some rentals are not currently fit to live in”.
“About 40,000 children a year are admitted to hospital due to diseases are related to poor housing, and 1,600 New Zealanders’ lives a cut short by illnesses caused by living in cold, damp conditions,” said Twyford. “This has to change. Thanks to this law, it will.”
The National Party has criticised the bill as meaningless, saying that legal minimum requirements were already in place. The New Zealand Herald reported that Twyford said, prior to the third reading of the bill, that new standards might see extra costs for landlords.
“We think between $3000 and $5000, if you have to insulate from scratch and put in a heat pump. But we’re going to be providing grants of up to $2000 per property to assist with that.” He also said that he did not think the bill’s minimum standards would push up the price of rent – and increases would be marginal “if at all” because rents were set by supply and demand and all landlords in the market would have to meet the standards.
Twyford said the government would run a consultation process over the next 18 months to ensure that tenants, landlords, public health and building science experts and industry representatives had an opportunity to get involved in “creating robust minimum standards”.
]]>The activism campaign began on Saturday November 25 – the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women – and runs until Human Rights Day on December 10. In 2012 it is estimated that almost half of all women who were victims of intentional homicide worldwide were killed by an intimate partner or family member.
Carol Beaumont, Auckland lead organiser for the New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO), said the effects of domestic violence are of great concern to NZNO with the majority of its 48,000 members women. “Many of whom will be victims of domestic violence given the extent of this problem in our society and many suffer violence at work too.” Beaumont said in the last decade NZNO had advocated strongly for legislation, policy and industrial responses including provisions in collective agreements that provide employment protection and support for victims of domestic violence who face the risk of domestic violence.
“Nurses deal with domestic violence in a number of ways – screening, support, treatment and prevention is part of their work. Nurses are often the first health professional victims of domestic violence engage with,” said Beaumont.
“We are strongly in favour of workplace support provisions and have raised them with employers in our collective bargaining.”
She said that NZNO is part of the movement lobbying that the International Labour Organisation Conference adopt an instrument or instruments concerning violence and harassment in the world of work.
More on the days of action internationally can be found at: http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/in-focus/end-violence-against-women Or facebook.com/SayNO.UNiTE and twitter.com/SayNO_UNiTE
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