Te Awamutu Primary Health Care nurses strike for pay parity after negotiations fail

Striking Te Awamutu nurses take their message to the public on Alexandra St. Photo / Kate Durie

Te Awamutu nurses joined other nurses around the country in walking off the job Thursday, October 27 from 10am to 2pm. This came after more than a year of failed pay negotiations with their employers.

Their employers' did not close the pay gap with nurses employed by Health NZ Te Whatu Ora, due to a lack of Government funding – despite more than a year of bargaining.

Te Awamutu Medical Centre's nursing team participated in this strike and no nursing services were available.

This was expected to cause a delay in their response times to messages and processing times for repeat prescriptions. They apologised to the public for any inconvenience and thanked people for their understanding and support for their nurses.

Janet Johnson the nursing team leader at Te Awamutu Medical Centre said "on behalf of all our nursing team thank you for the support from our doctors and admin team. We know how busy the medical centre always is, especially with the countrywide shortage of GPs and we appreciate the time to be able to be out in the town sending our message."

"The people of Te Awamutu are awesome. Their kind and supportive response meant a lot to all our nurses."

The strike included around 4300 NZNO Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa (NZNO) members who work in medical centres and after-hours emergency clinics (covered by the PHC MECA) as well as those working for Plunket and Health Care New Zealand, both of which have their collective agreements.

Each of the three groups held their strike ballot but chose to strike at the same time as a display of solidarity and because they face the same issues.

Each group has rejected an employer offer of 3 per cent or less, with further talks stalling because employers say their funding from Government is too low to offer any more.