Fair Pay Campaign For All Health Workers Begins

Campaign For Fair Pay For All Health Workers Begins

“Health workers in the Canterbury District Health Board voted at stop work meetings this week on a plan to extend the revaluation of nurses’s pay to all health workers,” said Nadine Marshall, Secretary of the National Union of Public Employees (NUPE) today.

“NUPE covers around 600 CDHB staff including nurses, other clinical staff such as Occupational Therapists and Social Workers in health, and support staff such as clerical and orderlies throughout the CDHB. These staff work in teams across Princess Margaret, Hillmorton, Burwood, Christchurch Womens’, and Christchurch Hospitals, and various other sites in Canterbury.”

“Our members unanimously voted to support nurses in their national campaign for 25+% pay rises,” said Nadine Marshall. “However, our members feel strongly that all health workers, whether nurses, allied staff or support staff, should be getting the same revaluation. The health sector has been underfunded and subject to wage suppression over the last twenty years. There is also a parallel to the campaign that primary teachers ran for pay parity with secondary teachers in the 1990s which highlighted the significant level of underfunding across teaching.”

“The staff in our hospitals work in teams and they should be getting the same percentage pay rises as part of the much needed revaluation of the whole health sector. They support the NZNO rejection of the Hospital Boards’ paltry 2% per year offer for Hospital Aides and call on the Government to offer support staff the same increases as they are offering Nurses. ”

© Scoop Media