The Coalition Government is actively preventing its pay equity scheme from working, NZNO and Hospice New Zealand says.
Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa NZNO lodged a pay equity claim for its 750 hospice staff in September 2025. Hospice employers accepted the claim met the merit requirements.
Hospice New Zealand chief executive Wayne Naylor says under the Government's new restricted scheme, the nurses pay equity claim must use a "comparator" workforce in the health sector meaning Te Whatu Ora workforces are the major groups that can be accepted.
"However, Health NZ declined our proposal. This situation is deeply frustrating. The claim cannot proceed without comparators," he says.
NZNO delegate and Nelson hospice nurse Donna Burnett says Te Whatu Ora has a conflict of interest being both the funder of hospices and the main employer of comparators.
"This is deliberate sabotage. Their response is not rational and definitely not supportive. Te Whatu Ora nurses received their pay equity settlement so why should specialist palliative care nurses and health care assistants be subjected to gender-based undervaluation. We also have a 95% dominant female workforce. It is appalling to see such division in New Zealand.
The Coalition Government has promised there is still a path to pay equity under their new scheme.
"Hospices have been repeatedly misled by successive governments. It feels like we are only paid lip service when it’s needed," Donna Burnett says.
Wayne Naylor says many hospices are struggling financially and need to be able to pay their specialist nurses a fair wage to retain them. "If we include work on the almost-completed previous claim under the old scheme, hospices have spent more than three years and over $100,000 trying to resolve this issue.
"If hospices cannot attract and retain the nurses they need, their ability to provide specialist care is put at risk. Dying people and their whānau may then miss out on the care and support they need," Wayne Naylor says.