Source: Radio New Zealand
Unsplash / Hush Naidoo Jade
After 19 months of bargaining and several strikes, senior doctors have ratified a pay agreement with Health NZ.
Ninety-four percent of members of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists had endorsed the offer in an indicative ballot this week.
Te Whatu Ora said it would affect about 5500 senior doctors.
The agreement includes a cumulative pay increase of 5.9 percent over the next two years, backdated to January 2026.
The union’s executive director Sarah Dalton said it had been a long journey.
In September last year, Health NZ called for the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) to step in and force doctors into a contract, saying the union had breached the obligations of good faith, [. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/580344/health-nz-fails-to-get-employment-relations-authority-to-force-senior-doctors-into-contract-amid-pay-dispute-deadlock but the ERA declined].
Dalton said the agreement was good news, but there remained significant and ongoing challenges in the public health system that needed to be addressed, including safe staffing levels.
“The first increase effective from January this year is a 2.9 percent increase across the board, and then there is a second step-increase payable on July 6 which ranges from 2.5 percent at the top of the scale, to four percent at the lowest step of the specialist scale,” she said.
“That is to reflect that the bottom steps have not kept pace with inflation to the extent that the top step has.”
It was also intended to maintain relativity with the pay of junior doctors – some doctors were being offered a pay decrease when they qualified as specialists, Dalton said.
Two lump sum payments of $4000 were included – but those were “a sugar hit”, rather than providing lasting value for members, Dalton said.
The agreement also fully restored doctors’ personal grievance work rights, which had been removed by amendments to the Employment Relations Act earlier this year, and enshrined Te Mauri o Rongo New Zealand Health Charter into the collective agreement, Dalton said.
It also included an increase to the continuing medical education fund, which doctors could draw on to upskill and renew qualifications, and a workforce planning clause, which Dalton hoped would allow them to take a more active role in staffing decisions.
HNZ executive national director Robyn Shearer said the agency welcomed the decision.
“We acknowledge and thank ASMS for their commitment to reach this settlement,” she said. “Health NZ values our senior doctors who protect and improve New Zealanders’ health and wellbeing every day.”
Health Minister Simeon Brown RNZ / Mark Papalii
Health Minister Simeon Brown has also welcomed the ratification.
“Senior doctors are instrumental in delivering on the government’s health targets. I appreciate the dedication and professionalism they bring to their work, and their ongoing commitment to putting patients at the centre of everything they do,” he said.
It follows the recent approval of collective agreements for APEX pharmacy members, APEX psychologists, PSA Allied Public Health, Scientific and Technical members, APEX dietitians, PSA Public and Mental Health Nurses, and STONZ Resident Medical Officers.
“I want to acknowledge ASMS and Health New Zealand for their constructive engagement in reaching this agreement, which provides certainty for senior doctors and helps ensure New Zealanders continue to receive the care they need.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand