Practice nurse deal finally passed – talks underway on distributing Crown funding boost

Discussions are underway on distributing Crown pay parity funding to practices and nurses party to the long-awaited and finally ratified nurses’ union pay deal.

It was announced in an internal newsletter to members last week that the hard fought for pay parity deal had been overwhelmingly ratified by New Zealand Nurses Organisation members employed by the nearly 500 employers party to the Primary Health Care multi-employer collective agreement (PHC MECA).

For MECA practice nurses with six years’ experience or more, the pay deal and new pay step 6 is the equivalent of a $5400 pay increase bringing a full-time salary to just over $75,000 a year.

After more than 18 months of lobbying and historic industrial action, to bring practice nurses pay in line with their DHB colleagues, the ministry and DHBs late last year agreed to provide a stop-gap funding boost to MECA practices.

NZMA chief executive Lesley Clarke and operations manager Robyn Fell, who represent the vast majority of MECA practices, met with the Ministry of Health late last week to discuss distribution of the promised Crown funding.

The stop-gap funding boost is designed to fund the new pay step 6 backdated from 1 February until 1 July when the labour cost component of capitation funding for all practices is expected to rise in response to the new pay rates and step.

Discussions to finalise the funding mechanism for distributing the stop-gap government funding to practices are ongoing but a process is expected to be shared shortly, says Ms Clarke by email.

She says it is estimated that about 80 per cent of nurses covered by the MECA are on current top pay step 5. If, on 1 February, they had had been on step 5 for a year or longer, they will automatically transition to step 6, with others following when they reach their 12-month anniversary.

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In an email to MECA members last week, NZNO industrial advisor Chris Wilson say the MECA was “very clearly ratified” with 84 per cent of votes cast in favour.

The MECA, covering about 3400 registered nurses, enrolled nurses and medical receptionists, was expected to take up to two weeks to be formally signed off by the 496 practices party to it.

The campaign stepped up in July with the sector’s first off-site stopwork meeting followed by an 8-hour strike on 3 September, a further stopwork meeting in late September and a 12-hour strike on 9 November.

The news late last year that the stop-gap Crown funding boost is exclusive to the MECA practices and nurses angered many in the sector.

The MECA practices count for roughly half of the country’s 1000 general practices.

Non-NZNO and non-MECA nurses and practices are waiting on the 2021–2022 Budget and annual capitation increase to see how the increased labour costs impact on capitation funding, and whether increases are seen as sufficient to fund the new pay step. MECA practices are also waiting with interest.

The Ministry of Health and DHBs are understood to have made a commitment to work with employer representatives “in good faith to address any potential shortfall” after Budget 2021 and the new capitation rates are set.

Ms Wilson pointed out to members in an update this month that negotiators could be back around the table quite soon as the just-ratified MECA expires at the end of August.

In the interim, the union’s negotiations for a new DHB pay settlement are continuing and the outcome of the DHB/NZNO pay equity claim is also expected, which would impact on pay rates for nurses and health care assistants across the health sector.

A similar pay equity settlement for DHB clerical staff, also imminent, is expected to have a flow-on effect to informing pay rates for medical receptionists and administration staff.

Ms Wilson says joint exercises by PHC MECA partners are also due to get underway to scope the nature of the nurse practitioner, designated registered nurse prescriber and practice assistant roles to inform future bargaining.

• A 2.5 per cent pay increase backdated to 6 January 2020 (for registered nurses) or 1 September 2019 (for enrolled nurses and medical receptionists who do not receive an additional pay step)

• Followed by a 2 per cent increase for all members backdated to 1 September 2020.

• A new step 6 pay rate of $36.02 from 1 Feb 2021 for registered nurses who have been at step 5 for 12 months as of that date.

• A two-year term running from 1 September 2019 to 31 August 2021.

• The MECA does not include a step 7 pay rate (which first came into effect for DHB MECA nurses on 1 May 2020) which will have to be negotiated once the new MECA expires on 31 August.