How and why we will win Fair Pay for Nurses

1. How and why we will win Fair Pay for Nurses Laila Harre NZNO Conference 25 September 2003

2. The Angels of Mercy are mad as hell

3. We want • a working environment • that allows nurses, midwives and care assistants • to practice at a high level of quality • and to be remunerated according to their level of • skill • effort • responsibility • recognising the nature of their working conditions

4. Nurses compared with MRTs, March 2003

5. The Enemy Hourly pay rates by gender, public sector 1989-2000

6. “The gender pay gap is larger – and has been decreasing more slowly – among more highly paid employees than among the lower paid” Sylvia Dixon, Dept of Labour 2001

7. Comparing nurses to teachers and police – March 2003

8. Nurses compared with junior doctors, March 03

10. Research

11. Resources

12. The Herald (above) and the Dom-Post on Suffrage Day 2003

13. Determination

14. We also have • a law that enables us to negotiate MECAs • A government that says it is committed to pay equity, at least for public sector workers • A state sector pay equity taskforce due to report in March 2004 with a five year plan to address the public sector gender pay gap • friends and allies throughout the trade union and women’s movements and community organisations

15. Where we are at • Over the last three years NZNO has successfully put together 4 Multi Employer Collective Agreements • 2002 Conference resolution to develop a national remuneration strategy to underpin the current bargaining round • Development of a national strategy, underpinned by the research

16. The strategy aimed to • reduce the differentiation between regions in the current round and achieve common expiry dates for all agreements in mid-2004 • to develop a fair pay settlement for all public sector members through a working party with government, • to apply this settlement in the 2004 bargaining round after the expiry of the Auckland MECA • Strategy endorsed at NZNO’s first national round of stopwork meetings since 1991

17. Meanwhile • Government establishes Pay and Employment Equity Taskforce • NZNO meets Ministers to brief them on our proposal • The Taskforce recommends NZNO and the Government begin discussions on the nature and extent of the pay gap affecting nurses • Government decides not to proceed with this approach, while not ruling it out

18. Since then also • Northern Districts MECA settled, on similar rates to Auckland • CDHB agreement settled, bringing base rates to Auckland levels • South Island MECA settled, bringing the base rate for most members (top step RN) to Auckland levels and substantially narrowing the base rate gap for others • All these agreements can expire at the initiative of NZNO in a timeframe that would allow NZNO to initiate national bargaining when the Auckland MECA expires mid-2004

19. “unquantified fiscal risk”

20. NZNO on Suffrage Day 2003 • Public displays outside the Whangarei and Kaitaia Post Offices • Collecting signatures in Takapuna, Auckland City and Papatoetoe and Pukekohe • Launch in the Gisborne hospital cafeteria • Stopwork meetings at Rotorua ,Taupo, Whakatane, Tauranga and Waikato Hopsitals • Talkback radio in Thames featuring NZNO and local MPs • Fair pay relay throughout the Lower North Island • Candle lighting in Christchurch’s historic Nurses Chapel at Christchurch Hospital • Stop work meetings throughout the South Island

21. Ourbargaining choice should • Maximise our collective strength • Create unity and not division • Be democratic and participatory

22. Married women as a proportion of all women • working 20+ hours a week • 1945 18% • 32% • 1971 50% • Mothers in paid work in 1996 • 76% of the mothers of teenagers • 30% of mothers with a baby under 1 • 50% of mothers of pre-schoolers.

23. “Were there none who were discontented with what they have, the world would never reach anything better.” Florence Nightingale