Patient safety remains an absolute priority for Te Whatu Ora health workers who will strike for two days this week to have safe staffing levels enforced, NZNO says.
More than 36,000 Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) nurses, midwives, health care assistants and kaimahi hauora will walk off the job from 7am to 11pm on Tuesday and Thursday.
NZNO delegate Noreen McCallan says the two-day strike action was not taken lightly by members.
"We are doing this because we fear for the safety of our patients. We will lose two days’ pay for striking but we are standing up for safe staffing because it is the right thing to do.
"We became health workers because we want to care for people. But staff shortages have become overwhelming and exhausting for many of us. Our patients are suffering longer because we can’t get to them as quickly as we should."
Te Whatu Ora calls to return to the bargaining table don’t make sense because NZNO never left it, Noreen McCallan says.
"NZNO has been in bargaining with Te Whatu Ora for almost a year. During this time NZNO has engaged in 28 days of bargaining, 13 of those were with support from the Mediation Service and three days in facilitation with the Employment Relations Authority.
"We were in mediation with Te Whatu Ora as recently as Wednesday. However, our concerns about short staffing remain unaddressed."
Noreen McCallan says there has been strong public support for NZNO’s battle for patient safety and historically the work of nurses has been held in high esteem, including in this 2018 comment by National Party MP and now Public Service Minister Judith Collins: "If we all know nurses, in our families and elsewhere, they are the most dedicated people to their work, and for them to give strike notice, it says a lot."
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