David Cosgriff, Southland Times, March 30, 2006

A campaign to win hospice nurses pay parity with their district health board colleagues reached Invercargill yesterday.

Nurses from Hospice Southland were gathering signatures on a petition to go to Health Minister Pete Hodgson.

Nurses Organisation spokesman Mark Lennox said negotiations began last year for a national collective agreement, covering more than 300 hospice nursing staff at 15 sites. ... Hospice

Colin Rowatt, Wanganui Chronicle, March 29, 2006

Hospice Wanganui care assistant – we’ll call her Polly – loves her job ... “immensely”.

It is challenging, stimulating and “very satisfying”. Why else would anyone stick at a job, that is also “very hard work” for a miserly $10.50 an hour?

“We do everything,” she said “Care for the patients, wash, cook, clean, are there for their families and we are sometimes counsellors.”

If she wanted to, Polly could walk down the road and get another job that earns “heaps more money for doing less”. ... Would

Caitlin McKay, Manawatu Standard, March 29, 2006

It was a protest of the quiet kind.

Ten Arohanui Hospice nurses spoke to passers-by outside Farmers on Broadway yesterday to raise awareness in their bid for pay parity with public hospital nurses.

Palliative care coordinator Steph Ash said the nurses were not asking for more money than public hospital nurses. ... Nurses

Jayne Hulbert, Taranaki Daily News, March 28, 2006

Hundreds of people supported a call for better pay for hospice nurses during a demonstration in New Plymouth yesterday.

During the two-hour campaign in central New Plymouth, nurses from Taranaki's Te Rangimarie Hospice urged people to sign a letter to Health Minister Pete Hodgson.

The letter calls for hospice nurses to be paid the same rates as nurses in public hospitals. A registered nurse working in a hospice can earn $10,000 less than a counterpart in a public hospital. ... Hospice

Newstalk ZB, March 20, 2006

Nurses are pushing for all parents to be eligible to paid parental leave, regardless of how they get their children.

The Nurses Organisation says it supports an amendment which would entitle self-employed women to paid parental leave, but spokeswoman Angela Wallace says long term foster parents and parents involved in whaangai adoptions also need to be included. ... Nurses

Newstalk ZB, March 15, 2006

Plunket nurses will get a 13 percent pay rise after settling contract negotiations with their employer.

The Nurses Organisation has released details of the deal that was officially ratified yesterday.

Spokeswoman Chris Wilson says the increase will be paid out over three instalments and the deal also includes DHB allowances for professional development. ... Pay

Green Party, March 2, 2006

"This district healthboard has 568 staff paid over $100,000 including 16 over $300,000. If savings need to be made, why not look to the salaries in management?

"Trying to squeeze savings out of nursing staff is misguided when nurses earn only half the yearly income of many in management, and when the skill and experience of nurses is the backbone on which the the entire hospital depends. ... Kedgley

Ruth Berry, New Zealand Herald, March 2, 2006

The Auckland District Health Board is raising the prospect of replacing older, more experienced staff - including doctors and nurses - with younger and cheaper ones as it looks to cut costs.

But board chairman Wayne Brown, who made the controversial comments in front of a parliamentary select committee yesterday, seemed unclear whether this was already happening, or would happen in the future. ... Cost

RNZ, March 2, 2006

The chairman of the Auckland District Health Board believes nurses should not be paid more just due to length of service.

The comments come as the board looks at ways of reducing a $50 million deficit, with job cuts soon to be announced. An announcement will be made by the DHB in May.

DHB Chairman, Wayne Brown, says wages make up 60% of its costs and are the obvious place to look if savings are to be made. ... Service

NewsRoom, March 2, 2006

The chairman of the Auckland District Health Board believes nurses shouldn't be paid more just due to length of service.

Wayne Brown's comments come as the board looks at ways of reducing a $50 million deficit, with job cuts soon to be announced.

Mr Brown says the problem is that DHBs haven't been funded for the new pay scale introduced for nurses, based on length of service.

He says nobody should be paid more just because they have been in the job longer and a range of factors need to be taken into account. ... Auckland

Newstalk ZB, March 2, 2006

The head of the Auckland District Health Board is calling criticism from the National Party inflammatory.

National health spokesman Tony Ryall claims Wayne Brown has told a parliamentary select committee his DHB would make experienced doctors and nurses redundant, and save money by hiring less experienced people.

But Mr Brown says what he actually said, was that health collective contracts put pay up over time regardless of experience, so if the board needs to make redundancies, more highly paid people will be targets. ... Criticism

One News, March 1, 2006

New Zealand's biggest health board is looking at radical cost cutting - experienced doctors and nurses may be replaced by younger people to save money.

The Auckland District Health Board has put aside $8 million this year for redundancies.

"It's simply incredible that the DHB is going to sack experienced doctors and nurses in order to employ younger inexperienced doctors and nurses to save money," National MP Tony Ryall says. ... DHB

Newstalk ZB, February 24, 2006

Nurses are fearful of losing their jobs as a review is carried out into public sector expenditure.

The government says the review aims to strengthen public services rather than cutting them, but Nurses Organisation Chief Executive Geoff Annals says history shows these sorts of reviews tend to focus on labour costs.

He says nurses have historically been underpaid and have only just managed to address the inequity in public hospitals. ... Nurses

Errol Kiong, New Zealand Herald, February 9, 2006

Plunket nurses have been offered a 13 per cent pay rise - bringing their pay in line with their public hospital counterparts.

The Nurses Organisation believes its 600 Plunket members will accept the offer, and hopes Plunket's move will spur other primary healthcare providers to take similar steps towards pay parity.

If ratified, the deal will give a fourth-year Plunket nurse - the payscale most are on - a jump in May from $47,430 a year to $53,860. ... Plunket

New Zealand Nurses Organisation, January 31, 2006

Corporate ownership is set to increase in aged care with the conditional purchase of Presbyterian Support’s six East Coast rest homes by Qualcare.

New Zealand Nurses Organisation spokesperson Rob Haultain said today the aged care sector was increasingly dominated by private operators, who were in the business to make money. Also on the increase is Australian ownership in the sector.

Qualcare is part owned by an Australasian private equity fund manager. ... Corporate Grip