Senior Nurses’ To Consider Pay Offer

Senior Nurses’ To Consider Pay Offer

Senior nurses in the lower North Island are to attend meetings over the next fortnight to consider their employer’s latest pay offer, said the New Zealand Nurses’ Organisation today.

The Nurses Organisation has been negotiating a Multi Employer Collective Agreement (MECA) covering around 500 senior nurses employed by seven lower North Island DHBs since August 2002.

The DHBs covered by the MECA are Taranaki, Wanganui, Palmerston North, Hakes Bay, Wairarapa, Hutt Valley and Capital and Coast.

NZNO advocate, Lyn Olsthoorn said the offer fell well short of the NZNO claim for pay rates equal to those paid elsewhere in the North Island.

“Not only is the offer much lower than rates paid to our members colleagues in other parts of the North Island, most members would not receive any increase at all until late this year and would face a pay freeze until July 2005,” she said.

“Although there is an offer of a ”catch up” for those who have been significantly underpaid for a long time, for the majority the offer falls way behind the claim endorsed prior to negotiations."

The meetings will be completed by August 14.

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