Plunket staff set to gain district health board pay rates.

Plunket staff throughout the country are this month voting on a pay offer which brings their pay rates in line with the district health board (DHB) multi-employer collective agreement (MEGA) July 2005 rates.

During negotiations last month, the NZNO team, led by advocate Chris Wilson and the Plunket team, led by chief executive Paul Baigent, reached a settlement, which NZNO is recommending to its approximately 600 Plunket members. Ratification meetings finish on March 9. The settlement offer, with a year-long term, includes a five percent pay rise for administrative staff, backdated to August 1, 2005; and a 13 percent increase, in three separate installments,--on August 1, 2005; January 1, 2006 and May 1,2006--for registered, Plunket and Karitane nurses, community workers and kaiawhina.

The settlement also includes the same bargaining fee clause as the DHB MECA, ie that non-NZNO members must pay a bargaining fee to NZNO in order to gain the rewards of the NZNO -negotiated deal. Plunket and NZNO must ballot members and non-members on this. "We are very happy to have that provision in the agreement and believe it reflects the fact Plunket values its bargaining relationship with NZNO," Wilson said. Over the course of the agreement, the pay increases for clinical staff will deliver parity with the July 2005 DHB rates. The proposed settlement was the first stage in achieving pay parity and further pay increases would be negotiated in the 2006/2007 bargaining round, she said. The settlement also includes the DHB allowances for professional development recognition programmes.

The negotiations had been very positive, with Plunket management supporting the principle of pay parity. "We are very pleased with the settlement as it achieves what we set out to do. It is also very positive that a large employer in the PHC sector has accepted that pay parity is needed for recruitment and retention. We certainly appreciated that approach," Wilson said. NZNO's negotiating team was Wilson, Plunket nurses Luenda Rogers (Pahiatua) and Margaret Wong (Aukland), Wellington Karitane nurse Mary Peryer, Hamilton kaiawhina Dale Marriot, Plunketline representative Jo Macrae, and Dunedin support team co-ordinator Sharon Robinson. Funding the pay increases would be a significant issue for Plunket, which was not fully funded for the increases, she said.

Baigent was not available for comment when Kai Tiaki Nursing New Zealand went to press.

'Extremely significant' settlement

NZNO's industrial services manager Cee Payne-Harker said the settlement was "extremely significant" as a large PHC organisation had recognised that DHB rates needed to be paid in the sector. "Plunket has worked very hard to ensure fair pay across the organisation, We have more work to do with the Family Planning Association but are confident we'll achieve fair pay there as well."