Health Minister Andrew Little says strike notices have been lifted. ”In addition to that there is a commitment to conduct a ministerial review of the safe staffing accord and the implementation care capacity demand management that has not been consistently rolled out,” he said. The Ministry of Health and the nurses union would run a recruitment campaign to fill the 1450 nursing vacancies across the country, Little said. “We need to get nurses into those roles.” Nurses union organiser David Wait said the new offer was “significantly different” from the previous offer but nurses will now get to decide whether it was acceptable or not.
Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Nurses voted yesterday to participate in two 24-hour strikes - on 29 August and 9 September - and another eight-hour strike on 19 August.
They had held an eight-hour strike early last month before returning to negotiations with district health boards over pay and conditions.
Collins said it was a situation of the government s own making because of the cost of reforming the health system, and bureaucratic bloat. It s not my job to tell the government what to do on this one, they ve got themselves in a hell of a pickle, she said. They shouldn t have employed 10,000 extra bureaucrats before Covid-19 came in and they shouldn t have been putting nurses through a whole restructure of the health system and spending close to half a billion dollars on it.
Striking nurses 'rightly outraged' at Government after $20 benefit increase - Judith Collins newshub.co.nz - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from newshub.co.nz Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Queensland job pitch for NZ nurses and midwives promises warm reception Tuesday, July 6, 2021 RNZ
Queensland is trying to attract New Zealand nurses with a big ad campaign.
The state government has taken out half-page ads in the
New Zealand Herald in the past few days, extolling the virtues of the Sunshine State and the need for nurses and midwives there.
A nurses union is worried the ads will tap into a sense of dissatisfaction among the Kiwi workforce, who are already voting on whether to strike again. The union is also concerned some might pack their bags. Ditch the winter chill, the ad reads, expand your horizons in sunny Queensland! The upbeat ad has pictures of smiling nurses with babies, and a photo of a golden sand beach.
District Health Boards say their focus remains on finding
a way settle the Multi Employer Collective Agreement (MECA)
negotiations with the NZ Nurses
Organisation.
Spokesperson Dale Oliff says DHBs spent
two days with the NZNO and an independent mediator last week
discussing options for settling the pay talks, and while
nurses have endorsed a strike proposal, DHBs believe they
can come up with an offer to settle the pay
talks.
“We’re continuing to work on a range of
options and will be working with the union again this week
to progress those discussions before the DHB and NZNO
bargaining teams get back together with the mediator next