Midwives employed by Te Whatu Ora in the country’s hospitals are fed up that they are not being listened to and they are planning actions to make their voices roar, MERAS, the Midwives’ union, says.

MERAS and sister union NZNO had hoped to secure an interim pay equity adjustment for midwives at a meeting with Te Whatu Ora on Friday, only to be told that although an interim settlement “seemed to be the best option”, they would "explore" this with "a sense of urgency". No time frame was given. They also had said, "On the employer side, we need clarity for us to consider our position".

“They have got to be joking,” MERAS Co-leader Jill Ovens says. “We have been very clear about what is needed. Te Whatu Ora stuffed up last December when they paid nurses an interim pay equity adjustment and completely ignored their midwives. We told them at the time this needed to be sorted before Christmas or midwives would walk. Here we are in March and still nothing on the table.”

Ms Ovens says sacked Te Whatu Ora Board Chair, Rob Campbell, was not kidding when he said on Friday that people scattered through the health system slow things down and make things more difficult. He said all too often there were delays, over complications, obfuscations, until nothing happens.

Midwives are reacting angrily on social media, with one midwife suggesting that walking off the job may provide Te Whatu Ora the “clarity they seem to need”. Another wrote: “I’m so tired of this malarky. I’m despondent. I’m angry. I feel unappreciated and undervalued. When I reach retirement age, I’m going to check out. Just bloody done.”

Under the Equal Pay Act midwives cannot take industrial action, and the only avenue for unions is to go the Employment Relations Authority to break through the delays and resolve disputes over the pay equity process. MERAS has done this three times now – in June 2021, November/December 2021, and December 2022. Friday’s meeting with the Te Whatu Ora team was the result of mediation directed by the Authority two weeks ago.

Midwives have responsibility to direct and supervise nurses in maternity services, yet the nurses are now being paid $11,000+ a year more than the midwives they work with.

“Midwives certainly don’t begrudge nurses getting higher pay, but we have all been in the same parallel pay equity processes since 2018, and it is unfair that the midwives’ claim keeps being put on the back burner,” Ms Ovens says.

She says the midwifery pay equity process has been hampered by bias against midwives, including undervaluing their qualifications, skills, and level of responsibility, in comparison with other health professionals that are or have been historically predominantly men and enjoy a privileged position within the health sector hierarchy.

“Ironically the Pay Equity process was supposed to address discrimination against workforces almost entirely made up of women and yet it has been marked by misogyny from day one,” Ms Ovens says.

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