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Politics | Dispute

Half a billion dollars offered to better support nurses

Photo credit: Stuff

Thousands of nurses fed up with low pay and long hours have voted to strike for two days in July - but the action could be cancelled following an offer made by district health board (DHB) bosses to better support workers today.

DHBs have offered more than half a billion dollars to settle pay negotiations with the New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO).

DHB spokesperson Helen Mason says the offer is a significant increase going beyond the recommendations of the independent panel proposed by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

“The offer will invest $520 million dollars between now and mid-2020 for base pay increases, more staff and improving working conditions.  Almost half of that is new funding over and above the DHBs’ previous offer,” says Mason.

This offer will also increase NZNO members’ base salary and increased on-call rates.

“The salary of a registered nurse with five years’ experience will go up by around $10,500 over 18 months - that’s almost $200 extra a week by the end of 2019”.

The average take-home pay of a full-time experienced registered nurse will be around $93,000 a year by December 2019, Mason says.

“This offer is a considerable improvement on the last one delivering base pay increases, additional staffing and improved working conditions.  We think that it’s a significantly better offer and hope it’s the basis for an agreement that will avoid strike action”.

The union will decide whether the offer strong enough to present to union members, who would then vote on it next month.

The strikes are scheduled for July 5th and 12th. The decision was made based on a 30-day ballot that went out to 27,000 nurses in April.