Health Minister Andrew Little said taking action on pay parity for healthcare workers was the “right thing to do” and expects the changes to occur in the early part of next year.
“I am pleased that on our watch, this year 10,000 public hospital administration and clerical workers got a historic pay equity deal that saw some with pay rises of as much as 40 percent,” Little said.
“We are also negotiating pay-equity agreements with midwives, allied health workers and homecare and support workers, and have boosted the pay of nurses working for Te Whatu Ora by an average of 20 percent and have put aside $540 million a year for a pay equity settlement for them.”
The New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) was consulted heavily on the new package and chief executive Paul Goulter told AM on Monday they’re “very happy” with the Government’s announcement.
“The Minister’s been promising it for a long time and we’ve now finally seen it being delivered,” Goulter told AM co-host Ryan Bridge. “So we’ve got some work to do, but [it’s] long overdue and I think the Government needs to be acknowledged for that.”
Nurses in Maori and Pacifika health care services will see a big jump in pay because of the Government’s announcement.
“If you take aged residential care, for example, those gaps were 10 to 12 percent that we estimated Māori and iwi providers is where the gap’s worst and we’ve we look at that around about a 25 percent wage gap,” he said.
“So these are significant figures and we’re really pleased that this is recurrent funding, the Government have buckled down to that, which is great.”
Goulter said the reason there was a difference between nurses at aged care facilities and hospitals comes down to the size of the different roles.
“I think it probably just goes to affordability and in the hospitals, obviously there’s been some fairly bitter pay disputes with strikes and stuff like that and that’s probably been accountable for the difference,” he said.
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