Covid 19 coronavirus: nurses on the front lines of the pandemic demand salary parity with DHB counterparts

By RNZ

Thousands of nurses and workers at 500 primary health care centers used their tools today to demand pay parity with their counterparts on the district health board.

Nurses working in general offices and emergency centers throughout the motu took to the streets to gather support for their plight. Some of them are in charge of making a swab for Covid-19 tests.

In Hamilton, a group of workers waved banners saying “quality work needs quality pay.”

“We are a very talented group of nurses and we are not recognized for the skills we have,” said one nurse.

Another said that the nurses had “gone out of their way” for too long because of their love and motivation for their work and their patients.

“We are all equally qualified as DHB,” he said.

In Christchurch, practice nurse Sarah Watkeys tearfully said that staff were working to the bone on the first line of response to Covid-19.

“The lack of courage that we have been given makes me cry. Why do we get over it if they are not going to show us that we have courage?”

Christchurch nurse Suli Tuitaupe, who works with many Maori and Pasifika patients, said it was only fair that community practices were paid equally.

“DHBs expect the care to be in the community, to be placed in the homes, and they need to reflect that in our pay scales,” he said.

In Dunedin, nurse Andrea Buxton said it was time for primary health care workers to be recognized.

“We talk to our colleagues at DHB, they too work hard, they earn at least 10 percent more than we do and we do the same work,” he said.

Another Dunedin nurse, Suzanne Crosado, was upset that she was treated differently from others in her field, especially when it came to Covid-19 response work.

“We received a nice letter with a pat on the back from the Minister of Health in which we appreciate all his work. That was very degrading,” he said.

“After all the work we did, and we had to do it while doing everything else. How insulting.”

He said the hospital seemed to think it could hand over the work to primary care services, despite the centers being overloaded, workers burned out and lack of funds.

“Why shouldn’t they pay us exactly the same as everyone else?” she asked.

In Wellington, the top advocate for the Nurses Organization, Chris Wilson, told a crowd gathered in front of Parliament that the situation was unacceptable.

“The frustration, anger and disrespect that everyone must feel for not being heard after a year of fruitless negotiations is not acceptable,” Wilson said.

“What do you have to do to be recognized? You are the front door of health.”

Chief Health Officer Dr Ashley Bloomfield said primary care workers and administrative staff were critical to the Covid-19 response and acknowledged that it was understandable that they were concerned about opening a wage gap.

Bloomfield said he was working with the ministry and DHB to find a solution.

The Nurses Organization has urged those groups to meet with primary care employers before the next strike in two weeks.