Health/Community and Public Services sectors
Allied Pay Equity Settlement
On October 17, the pay equity claim for approximately 16,000 Allied, Public Health, Scientific and Technical health workers reached settlement, delivering an average of 20% salary increases for most workers who were covered.
An unprecedented 82% of eligible members voted in the ballot returning a 99% majority to accept.
The pay equity settlement came after years of assessment and consistent, organised pressure on the employers.
PSA National Health Lead Sue McCullough says part of the claim’s success is due to the delegates in the sector, who created a high level of engagement with members in each district.
“Our members have seen the power of their voice,” McCullough says.
NZNO + PSA Pay Equity Settlement
On July 31, following years of bargaining, litigation and eventual mediation with Te Whatu Ora (Health New Zealand), the New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) and the PSA celebrated a historic win for nurses and
healthcare workers, reaching settlement on the Nursing Pay Equity claim.
The claim addressed significant gender-based pay discrimination suffered by nurses, kaimahi hauora, mental health assistants, and health care assistants.
The settlement secured an additional 6.5% pay rise for senior nurses, and 4% for everyone else covered by the claim on top of the already applied Agreement in Principle Pay Equity rates. The settlement also included additional lump sum backpay of $15,000. NZNO and the PSA are currently working to hold Te Whatu Ora to account in delivering the new rates of pay for those eligible.
“The majority of professions in the health sector are significantly female-dominated, and these settlements have moved a long way to address inequities in pay with male-dominated professions,” says PSA National Health Lead Sue
McCullough.
Social Workers Pay Equity Extension
In June, community-based social workers received a significant pay increase of an average 27%, after successfully organising for a pay equity extension in 2022. The pay increase was guaranteed for more than 5,000 workers, effective from 1 July 2023.
PSA members from community and iwi services raised the claim in 2019 and won the settlement in 2022. Bargaining in progress Bargaining for the Allied health Collective Agreement is still underway, and as Te Mahinga Ora went to press, the Community Law Multi-Employer Collective Agreement was ratified.
Local Government Sector
Top of the South Te Tauihu rally
In June, the PSA’s library and council staff members across the Marlborough, Nelson and Tasman councils (known collectively as Top of the South Te Tauihu) rallied for better wages and working conditions outside Civic House in Nelson City.
The event was held during the PSA bargaining for the second Multi-Employer Collective Agreement (MECA) with Top of the South Te Tauihu Councils. This MECA is the first in the local government sector, initially ratified in 2022.
The PSA Library Team in Nelson took the lead for this action. They’ve been working in a cold, damp building and cramped spaces with hazardous ceilings that have been deemed an earthquake risk, leading to months-long unfinished construction.
“Library and council staff need to be respected. These workers are the backbone of our community – they work through terrible conditions to ensure their community is looked after,” says PSA Organiser Ian Hoffmann. “One simple way to show respect for these staff would be to recognize their commitment on weekends with penal rates.” Penal rates are special rates for working unsociable hours like weekends, evenings and statutory holidays.
After a long campaign, PSA Members in Marlborough Libraries won a battle to retain their weekend penal
rates and staff in Nelson and Tasman are seeking the same recognition.
The rally was covered by news media outlets including RNZ, Stuff, the Nelson Mail and Nelson Weekly.
“The atmosphere was incredible. We had staff coming in on their days off to attend the rally, which shows how dedicated they are. We were joined by members of the Youth Network, and we all noticed non-members checking out the rally from the windows of Civic House. Best of all was seeing PSA Members from other sectors joining up to show solidarity. That’s what it’s all about,” says Hoffmann.
“We ended up receiving an increased offer and sent a clear message to the community, to employers, and to our members, that power lies with the workers.”
Top of the South Te Tauihu rally. Photo by Max Frethey.
Public Service/State Sector
Community Corrections Collective Agreement
In May, after ten months of bargaining and two strikes, Community Corrections workers ratified a new Collective Agreement to remedy an unfair pay system that disadvantaged women, Māori and Pasefika workers. The Agreement was ratified by more than 80% of the 2,000 PSA members at Community Corrections. Workers covered by the Agreement received pay increases from 4.7% to 30%.
Community Corrections workers, for years, have been the lowest-paid workforce in the public service. They are responsible for managing 30,000 sentences, 7,000 electronically-monitored sentences, and assist thousands of people who are returned from Australia under section 501 of
the Migration Act. It is thankless, skill-specific and risky work.
The workforce is predominantly female, and before the Collective Agreement, workers were subject to a performance pay system based on proving “competence” to leadership, to receive minimal pay increases at best.
“We’re talking about a fundamentally over-worked, under-funded workforce, who had to go through ten months of bargaining and two strikes to get anywhere. It’s important to
emphasize that our members worked incredibly hard to achieve this result,” says Josephine O’Connor, PSA Lead
Organiser.
“Our members shouldn’t have had to go through all of this. But they did, and now they know their strength.”
Ministry Of Education Collective Agreement
In April, a new Collective Agreement was ratified by members working in the Ministry of Education (MoE).
The new Collective Agreement lifts the lowest pay band of the previous Agreement, introduces a Hauora allowance, and establishes Section 10 - Te Ao Māori (Our Commitment
to Te Tiriti o Waitangi) – a new section providing a more equitable process for Māori members to be acknowledged for their te reo Māori and te reo me ōna tikanga Māori
expertise in the workplace.
Section 10 introduces the function of the Tautoko Mai panel, which protects the mana of the PSA member applying for any of the nine clauses within the section, the intent of the section itself, and the mana of the mātauranga that is gifted to support Ministry work when engaging Māori.
PSA members at MoE can apply for the recognition allowance when their expertise in mātauranga Māori is requested in formal/informal work processes.
The Tautoko Mai panel is made up of a PSA Hinonga Māngai Māori/Te Rūnanga delegate, a Māori representative from Te Pou Tuarongo (Māori Education Group), and a member of the MoE HR team who has the delegated authority to hold the role.
Before the establishment of this section, kaimahi Māori who provided their expertise to MoE would go unrecognised and uncompensated.
Section 10 is underpinned by our Ngā Kaupapa Principles, and the Principles of the Ministry’s People Behaviours Strategy – He Huarahi Pai.
“A lot of work our members carry out in the education sector relies on mātauranga Māori, to give effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It was important to the National Delegate Committee and bargaining team going forward to have that expertise recognised appropriately,” says PSA Organiser
Rebekah Helm.
