NZNO HNZCA
Campaign 2022

Kia Ora Member,

The online Te Whatu Ora Collective Agreement ratification ballot closed at midday today. There was good member participation and the outcome was close. However, we can confirm that Members have voted to accept the proposed collective agreement.

What this means

• Te Whatu Ora is being advised that the collective agreement has been ratified through NZNO’s internal democratic process.
• As members have voted to accept the new collective agreement, the proposed 9/10 August strike will not go ahead. Life Preserving Services plans will be cancelled and rosters will revert back to those already notified and in place prior to 24 July when the strike notice was issued. Please note that if procedures were deferred in preparation for the strike and there is less work planned for 9/10 August members cannot be forced to take leave.
• The new collective agreement will be signed by representatives of Te Whatu Ora and NZNO.

Bargaining fee

NZNO members have also voted in favour of the bargaining fee. To be clear a bargaining fee would not apply to NZNO members. It would apply only to Te Whatu Ora employees who work within the coverage of the collective agreement but are not members of NZNO or another union.

The next step will be for Te Whatu Ora to start balloting those non-union members and the combined result of that ballot and our ballot will determine whether a bargaining fee applies to non-union members. Workers who pay a bargaining fee will receive some, but not all, of the benefits we made in negotiations. Te Whatu Ora has said it will not negotiate with workers who are not eligible to pay a bargaining fee until after the Pay Equity settlement.

Next steps

While these collective agreement negotiations are finished, the close ballot result makes it clear that many NZNO members in every district were ready and willing to keep fighting for progress on our key issues. We will immediately begin using the following channels to continue pressure on Te Whatu Ora and the Government to value the nursing workforce and take action for safe staffing:

1. Work will get underway on the development of the new designated senior nurse scale and the implementation of the new safe staffing clause, both of which are part of the new collective agreement. Details of both can be found in the Terms of Settlement document.
2. We will seek to advance key Te Whatu Ora member issues alongside nurses, midwives, health care assistants and kaimahi hauora working in other parts of the health sector. In particular, we will be going hard on our "The nurse we need" campaign to ensure public and political support for our fixes to end the nursing shortage crisis as we head into the general election.
3. The new collective agreement will expire in October 2024. Preparations will begin early in the new year for the next round of negotiations.

I want to acknowledge the hard work over 10 months of our bargaining team who represented nearly 35,000 nurses, midwives, health care assistants and kaimahi hauora: Ben Basevi, Edna Beech, Grant Cloughley, Camille Collier, Al Dietschin, Debbi Handisides, Nayda Heays, Noreen McCallan, Julie Pritchard, Jennie Rae and Rachel Thorn.

I also want to acknowledge those members who took on additional leadership roles to get our messages out there such as leading stop work meetings and rallies and being media spokespeople.

Thank you also to our hundreds of Te Whatu Ora delegates who ensured members in their worksites were informed and involved at each step of the process. The high level of member participation has been outstanding.

Paul Goulter, Chief Executive
NZNO Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa