Nurses and healthcare assistants strike outside Britomart Station in Auckland earlier this year. Photo: Wallace Chapman
Thousands of nurses, midwives and healthcare assistants have voted to take more strike action next month to highlight what they call unsafe staffing levels.
Nurses Organisation chief executive Paul Goulter said Health NZ Te Whatu Ora was increasingly trying to "cover up chronic short-staffing" by moving healthworkers around to fill roster gaps.
"These roster gaps are caused by known and preventable staffing shortfalls. This partial strike action from 17-30 November will allow Te Whatu Ora members to focus on patient safety by providing care for the patients in their area of work," he said.
"The workers will refuse to be redeployed to other areas of work to cover staff shortages. They will also refuse to work additional hours they are not rostered to do and refuse any roster changes proposed by Te Whatu Ora.
"If Te Whatu Ora safely staffed shifts, none of these actions would be needed."
- Strike 1 - Strike on Redeployment, 17-30 November: Healthworkers will refuse reallocation to any area or to any work they are not rostered to do.
- Strike 2 - Strike on Additional Hours, 17-30 November: Workers will refuse any duty or shift other than those they are rostered to do.
- Strike 3 - Strike on Roster Changes, 24-30 November: Workers will reject any roster changes proposed by Te Whatu Ora.
The nurses' union has previously accused Health NZ of attempting to drop safe staffing levels from their collective contract agreement.
At the time, Health NZ defended the move, saying it was difficult to resolve "clinical need" through collective bargaining, and it was better dealt with by existing operational policies on safe staffing and rostering.
Goulter said workers were frustrated that after more than 30 days of bargaining with Te Whatu Ora, their concerns about the risk to patient safety remained unaddressed.
"The government is ignoring the evidence showing our hospitals are chronically understaffed and they are refusing to listen to nurses. Yet again it is nurses who have to prove the danger to their patients of ongoing staff shortages."
A Health New Zealand spokesperson said the agency had not yet received an official strike notification from the union.
"We believe that bargaining is the best way to resolve outstanding issues."
What do nurses want?
Nurses have been negotiating their pay as well as concerns about staffing levels and safety for some time now and have been embroiled in negotiations since last year.
A Public Service Commission spokesperson said that under the most recent offer, "nurses on the top step would have had a 2 percent increase in June 2025 - an extra $2135 per year - with another 1 percent increase in June next year".
Under that June offer, a graduate nurse on $75,773 would have received a total 11 percent increase to take their salary to $84,150 by June 2026, the commission said.
NZNO said that offers were below inflation rates, and said there was currently no new current offer or counter-offer on tap.
"Health NZ needs to listen to the voice of workers and come back to the bargaining table with an offer that provides for safer staffing levels, ends delays in recruiting new staff, and a better pay offer that reflects their value to the health system," PSA national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons has said.
Nurses have protested staffing levels, and say they are risky, said New Zealand Nurses Association bargaining team member Debbie Handisides.
"The coalition government is totally out of touch and refusing to listen. They don't understand what it's like to work in a hospital where you are constantly short-staffed.
"It puts the safety of our patients at risk. When there aren't enough nurses, care is delayed, and lives are put in danger. This is not a standard of care we trained for or that New Zealanders deserve."
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