‘Threat to viability’: Anxious practices notify PHOs: Minister aware of rising pay equity funding concerns – still awaiting advice

I am still awaiting advice from officials of the implications of these claims

Nearly 120 practices have now alerted their PHOs over fears for their financial viability if the practice nurse pay equity claim is not fully funded by the Government.

The New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) lodged two separate pay equity claims late last year on behalf of practice nurses and administration staff members working at more than 500 general practices and urgent-care centres.

At the time, health minister Shane Reti was non-committal over funding any resulting pay equity settlements, saying he was expecting official advice on this and related primary care funding issues.

General Practice Owners Association chief executive Mark Liddle says practices and GenPro “absolutely support” primary care nurses in achieving pay parity with Te Whatu Ora colleagues, who received a government-funded $4 billion pay equity settlement last year.

However, practices saw it as a “real potential threat to their viability” if the practice nurse pay equity claim is settled and not fully funded. Mr Liddle says GenPro’s preference was for the Government to fund practices to match Te Whatu Ora pay rates without going through its own pay equity claim. But NZNO opted to lodge the claims under the Equal Pay Act 1972 after unsuccessful attempts to gain pay parity with Te Whatu Ora nurses through bargaining and lobbying.

In December, some practices filed a notice with their contracted PHOs, citing concerns about the potential impact on services if the pay equity claim was underfunded.

Under Section 14 of the Contracted Provider Agreement between practices and PHOs, also called the “back-to-back” agreement, practices must formally notify their PHOs of issues affecting their ability to deliver contracted services.

GenPro shared a similar notification template with interested practices, and by late January, 116 practices had tailored and lodged a Section 14 notice with their PHOs, Mr Liddle says.

Copies of the notices were being shared with Dr Reti, Te Whatu Ora chief executive Fepulea'i Margie Apa and local MPs.

In an emailed response, Dr Reti said he was aware of the Section 14 notifications to PHOs (related to the pay equity claim funding concerns).

“However, I am still awaiting advice from officials of the implications of these claims,” he confirmed as New Zealand Doctor Rata Aotearoa went to press. Dr Reti said he understood Te Whatu Ora and other agencies were undertaking work in response to the claims, and he looked forward to “an update in the future”.

“This will no doubt involve a robust assessment of the claim.

“I have also been on record as saying that the overall funding model for general practice is not fit-for-purpose and look forward to receiving advice on a sustainable solution for our primary care providers.”

General Practice NZ chief executive Maura Thompson says anecdotally she understands most of its PHO members have received a Section 14 over the pay equity funding concerns.

“The issue is recognised and not unexpected, given that if a pay equity claim were to be successful, there’s no understanding, currently, of how it will be funded.

“So, what we have said consistently is that we think a claim needs to be fully costed and funded as the Te Whatu Ora [claim] was.” Also, government claim analyses need “detailed discussion” on the resourcing of any eventual pay equity settlement to ensure it didn’t “compromise existing services” by having to be met from general practices existing on “already massively overstretched” funding.

Ms Thompson says PHO responses to the practices raising a Section 14 notification endorse the PHOs’ commitment to the sustainability of general practice.

NZNO industrial services manager Glenda Alexander confirmed by text that a second pay equity claim, or amended first claim, would be lodged in February to include some general practices with NZNO members who had been missed out of the initial claim.

A timeline has yet to be set for the pay equity claim process, which will build on the two successful Te Whatu Ora hospital clerical and nurse pay equity claims, with the next steps including NZNO and employers agreeing on a bargaining process agreement.