'Truly distressed with the offer': Nurses go on strike nationwide

About 36,000 nurses, midwives and healthcare assistants have walked off the job for eight hours today over what they say are critical threats to patient safety.

At a picket in Auckland, about 1000 people turned out in support of the health workers.

The nationwide strike is a complete withdrawal of labour at every Te Whatu Ora facility.

It comes after the union said bargaining had stalled over "big ticket items" centered on public safety.

Members were also disappointed with Te Whatu Ora restricting "bargaining parameters" for the settlement to 1 percent of total employee costs.

This would equate to just 0.5 percent in the first year, and up to 1 percent in the second year.

Health NZ spokesperson Mark Shepherd has defended the offer, citing increases over the past several years, but intensive care nurse at Auckland Hospital, Sam Ohjer said that was a long overdue catch-up after years of being underpaid.

"We had a huge catch-up last year or the year before which was well deserved after... falling behind for so many years, especially during the rock star economy - that only happened because wages froze for ten years. We've finally kind of caught up a little bit and here we are going backwards the following year, it's just abysmal."

Striking nurse at a demonstration outside Wellington hospital, Jinty Graham, said the pay offer was not enough.

"We're just distressed, truly distressed with the offer that is being spoken about.

"We want to be paid what we deserve and in this climate we think a cost of living adjustment to our salary is perfectly viable."

She said it was crucial there were safe staffing levels across the country.

Another nurse striking outside the hospital poured cold water on Te Whatu Ora's dismissal of giving nurses a 1 percent pay rise saying it does not match inflation.

But Leon Brooke said a pay rise needed to reflect the cost of living.

"Inflation means that we're back to square one, we get back to square one before too long so yeah that is true but it's going to be wiped out before too long so this needs to be a continuous thing, there needs to be continuous pay increases to properly reflect what we do," Brooke said.

Meanwhile, an Auckland nurse said cutting clinical support staff would make it harder to care for patients.

About 40 hospital support workers at Auckland Hospital and Greenlane Clinical Centre have been told their jobs could be gone next year.

Te Whatu Ora told RNZ additional staff brought in to help during Covid were no longer needed as more nurses have been hired.

But the Auckland nurse said support staff are still being relied on.

"We had a huge catch-up last year or the year before, which were well deserved after falling behind so many years, especially during the rockstar economy. That only happened because wages froze for 10 years, we've finally have kind of caught up a little bit and here we are going backwards the following year already,"

The nurse said having someone handle non-clinical tasks such as making beds, delivering meals, and tidying wards, means she can focus on providing clinical support to patients.

Another Auckland nurse told RNZ staffing levels were dangerously low.

"I'm mainly here because of the unsafe staffing in our health system," North Shore Hospital nurse Alice said.

"The thing with patient numbers in the hospitals now, as opposed to 30 years ago... no one is convalescing, you're either acutely ill or you're not there."

Another nurse, Geraldine, said the ratios between nurses and patients were out of whack.

"We want to have ratios of one (nurse) to four (patients), instead of one to six or more. People are overwhelmed and it's not safe."

Her colleague, Connie, agreed and said more was being expected of nurses.

"As people leave they're not being replaced, so they're not employing any more. They expect nurses to carry on doing the work they're doing plus take on another load, so we're feeling very overworked."

Those passing were also in support of the cause.

Viktoria Hazag said she thought the nurses' strike was amazing and was planning to do healthcare at university next year.

"This is just a very fair thing to ask for since they do a lot. When I was in hospital a few months ago, they did everything for me.

"I could see the hard effort they put in and how many hours they worked each shift... I could definitely sense the pressure that they were under.

She said the 1 percent pay increase was disrespectful to nurses and the work they did.

Carol Pearson was also supportive of nurses walking off the job.

"I totally agree with them and what they're fighting for... I think they are underpaid and over-worked and there's a lack of real good experience and so I feel that they're rushing off to Australia like everyone else where they can get better pay and better conditions so I think we should try and keep them here," Pearson said.

John Takamore is a former patient and joined the strike with his wife.

When asked his thoughts on the 1 percent increase, he said the more costs go up, the more you should be paid.

"It stinks, these guys in the round building, they get mega and they disqualify the people that work on the front and they expect them to work for nothing so something's got to be done. We've got to look after them because they have families, they love their work, they love what they do for people so why not support them," Takamore said.

The union and Health NZ said hospital staffing would remain at a safe level during the eight-hour strike.

Speaking at Parliament, Health Minister Shane Reti expressed some unhappiness that nurses had resorted to striking so early in negotiations.

"It is a little bit disappointing that so early in the bargaining process they've gone to this action, but I commend them and Health New Zealand to get around the table and find a way forward."

Dr Reti also disputed the union's claim that budget constraints were putting patient safety at risk.

"That's not correct. $1.4 billion of new money, this year, which is actually what the fiscal and economic parameters for the previous government were as well.

"We have monitoring in place... to make sure that there is no harm to patient safety."