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New Zealand nurses vote on third sellout offer About 30,000 nurses, healthcare assistants and hospital-based midwives are currently voting on a third pay offer from New Zealand’s District Health Boards (DHBs). Voting ends tomorrow. Members of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) held an eight-hour nationwide strike on June 9 after rejecting two previous offers that would have lifted wages by just 1.38 percent, less than half the current rate of inflation. The NZNO provoked widespread anger among nurses when it cancelled a strike scheduled for July 29 before presenting the new proposed multi-employer collective agreement (MECA) for a vote. The offer does not address low wages or the increasingly desperate staffing crisis in public hospitals caused by decades of underfunding.
Wellington, New Zealand – In the 25 years Lisa has been a healthcare assistant, short-staffing has only got worse.
Her typical day involves changing a patient’s dirty linen, clearing their rubbish, escorting them to and from the bathroom, helping them with their exercises, and feeding, walking, and washing them.
“You can’t complete the patient care because there’s just not enough of you,” Lisa told Al Jazeera. “It means you feel like you’re failing people, and it’s not fair to them or us.”
Weary from years of trying to fit 10 hours of work into an eight-hour shift, Lisa is one of more than 30,000 nurses, midwives, and healthcare assistants working in New Zealand’s District Health Boards (DHBs) who have been negotiating with the government for the last year to improve pay and working conditions.