The Nurses Society of New Zealand has given formal notice under section 42 of the Employment Relations Act 2000 of our intention to initiate bargaining for a collective employment agreement (CEA) with Te Whatu Ora.
Technically the notice has been given by Te Uniana o NSNZ – the Union of the Nurses Society of New Zealand, which is our registered union arm.
This follows a vote by members employed by Te Whatu Ora, which showed a majority of members favoured this move. Only 5% voted against negotiating a CEA now.
The Society has negotiated CEAs for members across a range of workplaces for many years.
However, Nurses Society director David Wills says doing so for Te Whatu Ora has not proven to be necessary in the past because individual employment agreements (IEAs) used by the former DHBs always matched the DHB MECA and more recently with Te Whatu Ora the apposite CEAs for nursing staff.
"However, some problematic issues arose after the last Te Whatu Ora CEA was settled," says Wills.
While Society members on IEAs with Te Whatu Ora received the same pay increases as those on the main CEA, the effective date was delayed by 60 days. Hence this caused some disadvantage to our members in that sector.
The Nurses Society of New Zealand has given formal notice under section 42 of the Employment Relations Act 2000 of our intention to initiate bargaining for a collective employment agreement (CEA) with Te Whatu Ora.
Technically the notice has been given by Te Uniana o NSNZ – the Union of the Nurses Society of New Zealand, which is our registered union arm.
This follows a vote by members employed by Te Whatu Ora, which showed a majority of members favoured this move. Only 5% voted against negotiating a CEA now.
The Society has negotiated CEAs for members across a range of workplaces for many years.
However, Nurses Society director David Wills says doing so for Te Whatu Ora has not proven to be necessary in the past because individual employment agreements (IEAs) used by the former DHBs always matched the DHB MECA and more recently with Te Whatu Ora the apposite CEAs for nursing staff.
"However, some problematic issues arose after the last Te Whatu Ora CEA was settled," says Wills.
While Society members on IEAs with Te Whatu Ora received the same pay increases as those on the main CEA, the effective date was delayed by 60 days. Hence this caused some disadvantage to our members in that sector.