Source: Radio New Zealand
New Zealand Nurses Organisation chief executive Paul Goulter at a rally in Christchurch on 9 May 2024. RNZ / Nate McKinnon
The millions of dollars that Health NZ is saving with delays in settling collective contracts is costing it in terms of a settled workforce, according to the biggest nurses’ union.
Nurses Organisation chief executive Paul Goulter said his members – who had been stuck in dead-end bargaining for over a year now – were rightly aggrieved that their employer spent $538 million less than budgeted on personnel in the last financial year.
“They have an interest in that and it should be paid to them as part of a settlement to recognise the fact that Health NZ and the government have failed to approach the bargaining table with anything that looks like a settlement.”
Health New Zealand has said the funding available for collective agreements had not changed in either the 24/25 or 25/26 financial years, and it remained committed to settling them.
However, Goulter said the government’s edict against backdating any settlements in the public sector meant health workers were missing out the longer it dragged on.
“Unions see it as a breach of good faith in bargaining.”
At the same time, the $162m overspend in outsourced personnel costs in the 2024/25 year showed the money going to locums, he said.
“[It’s] just trying to plug gaps in a system where critical understaffing is reaching a critical point.
“This is the kind of patch up job that’s going on inside our health system at the moment.”
Health NZ has said it continues to “actively recruit” to reduce its reliance on outsourced personnel.
In the most recent financial year, Health New Zealand boosted its clinical workforce by approximately 750 full-time workers.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
