Media Release                                                                    26 March 2018

Collective voice of nurses loud and clear

Following several weeks of ratification meetings nationwide DHB nurses, midwives and healthcare assistants, who are party to the DHB MECA have voted not to ratify the DHB employer offer.

NZNO Industrial Services Manager Cee Payne says this means negotiations with the DHB employer negotiating team have reached an impasse.

“The Employment Relations Authority requires us to continue to act in good faith with the DHB employers through this impasse.  We remain open to any meaningful discussions with the DHB employer negotiating team,” Cee Payne said.

“Our preference is to have the DHB MECA settled. Industrial action is the last resort in the event it is not settled.

“However, mid-April NZNO will discuss the need for a ballot for industrial action with national elected delegates and staff. The nature of what industrial action might consist of will be decided then.

“We understand the impact that industrial action will impose on the health sector. Nurses are responsible and professional and will be concerned to ensure that adequate life preserving services will be available should a strike occur,” she said.

NZNO has today launched a campaign “#HealthNeedsNursing” and a website: (www.healthneedsnursing.nz). The campaign is a call once again to pay nursing and midwifery teams fairly, to ensure safe patient care and to ensure the right infrastructure is in place for public healthcare.

 “Members in DHBs are under huge pressures and feel their work is undervalued in a context of a decade of severe underfunding,” Cee Payne said.

ENDS.

Media enquiries to: Media adviser Karen Coltman 027 431 2617.