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Nurses’ pay equity fight continues (Photo by Paddy Dillon/Getty Images)
Nurses’ pay equity fight continues (Photo by Paddy Dillon/Getty Images)

The BulletinMay 11, 2022

Over 100,000 health workers in pay disputes

Nurses’ pay equity fight continues (Photo by Paddy Dillon/Getty Images)
Nurses’ pay equity fight continues (Photo by Paddy Dillon/Getty Images)
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There are around 235,000 health and care workers in New Zealand. Nurses, allied health and care and support workers are all currently engaged in pay disputes, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell for The Bulletin.

 

Nurses headed to Employment Relationship Authority

Tomorrow is International Nurses Day. It’s marked each year on the anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth. Here in New Zealand, nurses won’t be celebrating, as four years of pay equity negotiations drag on. New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) members (40,000 of them) were set to vote on an agreement with DHBs last month but, on Monday night instead voted to take the offer to the Employment Relations Authority. A legal review commissioned by the NZNO found the proposed settlement to be contrary to the Equal Pay Act. Speaking to RNZ’s Morning Report yesterday, NZNO chief executive Paul Goulter said “Nurses are sick of it and want to get on with their jobs but they have a deep sense of injustice around gender discrimination”.

Back pay still the sticking point

The NZNO and the Public Service Association (PSA) lodged pay equity claims for nurses in 2017 and 2018. At the crux of it was an assessment of whether nurses, a predominantly female workforce, had received less pay than men in comparable roles. A settlement was announced in early April this year but many nurses were disappointed that new pay rates would not be back-paid to December 2019 as previously agreed. The NZNO is now asking the ERA to rule on the back pay issue, rates for senior nurses and look at a review of the mechanism to ensure pay equity is maintained in the future.

Pay equity issues not confined to nurses

Investigative journalist Rebecca MacFie has written about a stall in further pay equity settlement negotiations for 65,000 care and support workers. The Care and Support Workers (Pay Equity) Settlement Act was passed in 2017. It followed decisions from the Employment Court and Court of Appeal around residential aged care worker Kristine Bartlett’s case. MacFie reports that the expiry date for the 2017 legislation is July 1 and nothing has yet been achieved in getting a replacement or extension for it. Pam King, a home care worker in Invercargill, says she and fellow workers are “totally pissed off”, and strike action is now possible.

Allied health worker strike still set for next week

Meanwhile, 10,000 allied health workers are also engaging in industrial action, working to rule over the next two weeks, doing no more than the duties required by contract, taking all entitled breaks and working rostered hours. They are set to strike on May 16. Hawke’s Bay DHB chief executive and spokesperson for DHBs on the matter, Keriana Brooking, said “DHBs still hope to prevent further action next week and that the offer being finalised now will result in the lifting of the strike action”.

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James Shaw has revealed country’s first carbon budgets (Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone)
James Shaw has revealed country’s first carbon budgets (Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone)

The BulletinMay 10, 2022

Our first carbon budgets

James Shaw has revealed country’s first carbon budgets (Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone)
James Shaw has revealed country’s first carbon budgets (Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone)
newsletter

Climate change minister James Shaw reveals country’s first three carbon budgets kicking off historic ten days for climate policy, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in The Bulletin.

 

Emissions budgets released ahead of plan 

Climate change minister James Shaw revealed the country’s first three carbon budgets yesterday. They span the periods between 2022–2025, 2026–2030 and 2031–2035. The budgets set a limit on the amount of greenhouse gas that can be emitted into the atmosphere. The budgets are based on meeting requirements in the Zero Carbon Act which was passed in 2019 and established the climate change commission. The full plan is out next Monday. RNZ’s climate reporter, Hamish Cardwell has a useful timeline of the path to this point.

National party supports carbon budgets

In a statement from Christopher Luxon, the National party has endorsed the budgets. “Climate change is a huge challenge. National is fully committed to emissions targets including net zero by 2050,” Luxon said. Te Pāti Māori has said the budgets aren’t ambitious enough while Act has said they don’t support them, maintaining their position that a cap within the Emissions Trading Scheme would be sufficient. Shaw has worked to obtain bipartisan consensus on the plan to ensure certainty as governments change. There will be a special parliamentary debate on the budgets on Thursday.

​​Error spotted by journalist changes budgets

In a mistake attributed to “genuine human error” in ​​March, the ministry of primary industries supplied information to the government that claimed new forests could not be planted without significant deforestation. The government extended the 2022-2025 carbon budget to account for this, adjusting it to 292m tonnes, 2m tonnes more than was recommended by the climate change commission. The error was reported by Stuff journalist Olivia Wannan. Shaw resolved to investigate the issue and the carbon budgets are now back in line with the original recommendations made by the climate change commission.

Half price public transport fares may be here to stay

Finance minister Grant Robertson has already flagged that a significant new spend in the budget will go towards meeting our climate goals. Stuff’s Ben Strang reports that the idea of making the public transport fare discount permanent has been part of budget discussions. The government introduced the nation-wide three-month discount in response to rising fuel prices. Auckland Transport reported patronage figures yesterday. There were 1.22 million trips on public transport last week, the largest number since August 2021. More time may be required before we can see how much impact half-price fares have had as the lifting of covid restrictions will no doubt have played a part as well.

Congestion charging on the cards for Auckland

As reported by Thomas Coughlan at NZ Herald this morning, the government is likely to announce that congestion charging will be introduced for central city roads in Auckland. Todd Niall at Stuff has details of a report from the Helen Clark Foundation published this morning. The report says congestion charging could be fairly implemented in Auckland now but more work is required before it could be done in Wellington. Foundation fellow, Tom James said an initial cordon around Auckland’s city centre will meaningfully reduce traffic and emissions and be equitable.