DHB negotiations deferred, facilitator to assist.

NZNO withdrew from district health board (DHB) multi-employer collective agreement (MECA) negotiations scheduled for early this month. The decision was made to try and find a constructive way of moving forward with the negotiations. NZNO wants a facilitator for future negotiations, with the next set scheduled for May 21 and 22.

NZNO advocate Glenda Alexander said that, at the last negotiations in April, there had been some good discussions and exchanges of ideas around some clauses, eg sick leave, but difficulties arose when attempting to translate that discussion into a potential clause. There had been no real progress from debating the issues to concrete solutions. "It's fair to say we felt some frustration at this lack of progress. We have had several days of negotiations and nothing has been agreed yet. NZNO suggested facilitation as a way forward. We also suggested the lead advocates attend a seminar on issues-based bargaining to help us both learn more about this style of bargaining which is a process new to both NZNO and the DHBs' negotiating team," Alexander said. Alexander and a DHB team advocate attended a "master class" on interest-based bargaining hosted by the Department of Labour's Partnership Resource Centre earlier this month. "Training for bargaining--negotiating skills with a difference" was run by two very experienced Australian facilitators and mediators, Anna Booth and Clive Thompson.

Information on the master class said collective bargaining was usually seen as "a union fighting to protect members' past gain and boost the next wage packet pitched against an employer seeking cost reductions and efficiencies. Both sides developed strategies to placate and outmanoeuvre and the negotiations turned on bluff, bravado and timing. Most parties are not only conditioned to this approach, they are comfortable with it. It reflects a realistic take on the unsentimental world of industrial relations."

The master class canvassed an alternative approach which required both parties to analyse their own and other stakeholders' interests, rather than just resorting to positions. But many who try this approach struggled getting through the hard bits, find their constituencies feel short changed with the lack of drama, or find that bargaining simply works better when crunching through areas of real difference."

The master class aimed to equip both management and union negotiators to work with blended bargaining, an approach that bridged these two different bargaining methods, building on the strengths that both offered.

The master class was run by Booth, a former vice president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, a former national secretary of the Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union and former corporate board member and Thompson, a solicitor of the Supreme Court of New South Wales and arbitrator of the Workers' Compensation Commission of New South Wales Clive Thompson. Booth also facilitated state-wide bargaining for the Queensland Nurses' Union in 2005/06.

Speaking before the master class, Alexander said it seemed a perfect fit with what NZNO and the DHBs needed to move negotiations forward. "Both parties have committed to issues-based bargaining but we have been struggling with moving from debate and discussion to concrete solutions--that's the hard bit. The opportunity to attend seemed too good to miss."

* May 8 was Fair Play Campaign Day and members and delegates around the country took part in a number of activities to gain public support for NZNO's key campaign issues--maintaining pay parity, employment equity and extending government superannuation to public-sector nurses. Activities included "fair play" teams of NZNO members asking the public to sign a letter endorsing the "fairness" of NZNO's issues. The letters were sent to local MPs and DHBs in the areas in which they were signed.

Primary health care MECA celebrations

National and regional celebrations are planned to mark the achievement of the primary health care multi-employer collective agreement (PHC MECA). Nurses overwhelmingly endorsed the MECA and NZNO advocate Chris Wilson and organising services manager Cee Payne-Harker announced the result at the conference of the College of Practice Nurses[NZNO] on May 5. Payne-Harker said this was a symbolic gesture, as the campaign for pay parity in the PHC sector was launched on Mothers' Day at the 2005 practice nurses' conference (see also story on p26).