Hope high on nurses' pay claim

By KEVIN TAYLOR

The nurses' union is confident the Government will agree to a settlement of its pay equity claim that may cost about $300 million.

Health Minister Annette King said last night that nurses were going for a big "pay jolt" - it was not a pay equity claim.

However, the Nurses Organisation organising services manager, former Cabinet minister Laila Harre, said she didn't care how the Government described the claim.

"We are claiming a significant pay increase which is based, among other things, on achieving equal pay for work of equal value.

"I don't care how that is described by the Government. What's important is that we get an outcome that stems the flow of skilled and experienced nurses from out of our public hospitals."

Earlier, a delegation of about 50 nurses handed a 125,000-strong petition to MPs outside Parliament amid a mood of optimism about the pay talks starting on July 13.

Last month, Associate Health and Labour Minister Ruth Dyson said the Government was adopting recommendations of a taskforce established to study pay and employment equity in the public service and public health and education sectors.

Women earn only 80.3 per cent of men's average hourly earnings in the three sectors, and in the health sector the gap is even bigger, with women earning only 64 per cent of men's pay.

Pay equity means equal pay for work of equal value, although the nurses' union has branded its campaign a "fair pay" drive.

Ms Dyson accepted the petition on Parliament's steps yesterday with MPs from every other political party except Act.

The petition calls for the Government to fund district health boards so they can meet the pay equity claim.

Ms Dyson said no money was allocated in the Budget for the claim but it was recognised it was coming.

She did not know the claim's details yet but acknowledged that nurses felt buoyant.

"They know that for the first time in 14 years they've got a Government that supports pay and employment equity issues being addressed."

Ms Dyson said there would be two claims - a normal pay round and a pay equity claim.

She said the district health boards would bring the financial implications to the Government and "we will work through it with them".

Ms Harre, a former Alliance MP, said nurses could not be in a stronger position to settle such a claim than this year and she expected it would be settled this year.

The union believed the cost would be "in the vicinity" of $300 million.

Ms Harre said the union had done pay comparisons with similar groups including police, teachers and other health professionals.

"All of this has led us to a conclusion that nurses are paid between $7000 a year and $15,000 a year less than they are worth."

Nurses were prepared to back the claim with industrial action but hoped it would not come to that.

Union chief executive Geoff Annals said all the signals from the Government had built the confidence of nurses that their claim would succeed.