Health NZ disappointed by nurses’ vote against offer

Statement from Mike Shepherd, Acting Regional Deputy Chief Executive Northern

Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora is very disappointed at the vote by New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) members to reject our offer to settle the collective employment agreement.

Our offer adopted all the Employment Relations Authority’s (ERA) recommendations following facilitation and was a fair offer.

The Health NZ offer would have provided:

• pay increases to all nurses covered by the collective agreement of one percent for each year of the two-year term for all pay rates
• a pay increase of $7552 by the end of April next year for a nurse graduate, once step pay progression is also included
• a $10,959 pay increase by the end of April next year for a Step 4 registered nurse, including step pay progression
• a $2,000 increase to step 5 for the Enrolled Nurses salary scale effective from 1 January 2026

The current average salary for senior and registered nurses is $125,662. This figure includes overtime, penal rates and Professional Development and Recognition Programme payments.

This offer also provided Care Capacity Demand Programme (CCDM) assurances that patient acuity and other contextual information would inform safe staffing decisions both in the short and the long term. Additionally, we agreed to an investigation of nurse-to-patient ratios. We are committed to applying learning and evidence to ensure appropriate staff are on duty to provide safe care to patients and sustainable workloads for nurses.

In September 2024, Health NZ began renegotiating its collective agreement with NZNO, which represents around 35,000 Health NZ nurses, healthcare assistants and some midwives.

After six days of bargaining, NZNO gave notice it planned to strike. This was followed by a national eight-hour withdrawal of labour and then four-hour district withdrawals of labour in December.

After little progress was made when bargaining resumed in the new year, NZNO applied for facilitation by the ERA in mid-March, supported by Health NZ.

The ERA found there was no reason to question the economic rationale behind the offer, and neither was there a rationale to support seeking further funding from the Government.

Since 2011 nurse salaries have outperformed the broader labour market outcomes, as shown through comparison against the Labour Cost Index.

For registered nurses, the top salary step rose by $45,377 between 2011 and 2024. This increase includes a $16,444 pay equity settlement.

Nurses got sizeable pay increases through the last collective bargaining agreement, gaining an extra $4000 and a one-off lump sum of $750 in April 2023 and an additional $2,000 or 3% (whichever was higher), plus a $500 lump sum in April last year.

We expect to have further discussions with NZNO. We remain committed to settlement of the collective agreement.