The Primary Health Care (PHC) MECA covers more than 3500 NZNO members and is the largest collective agreement in the sector. It means members can unite as a large group to win better pay and condition that simply wouldn’t be possible if they were negotiating worksite by worksite. 

We initiated bargaining for the renewal of the PHC MECA on the 17 May 2024. The notice covered 477 employers and covers around 3475 NZNO members.

It has taken some time to complete all the processes required to formally commence bargaining which includes coordinating the availability of both bargaining teams (NZNO and the Employer representatives) of around 14 people.

We held a virtual meeting on Tuesday 16 July to discuss the setup and logistics of the bargaining including the principles, approach, and rules of engagement. As part of that meeting, we locked in three sets of two days for negotiations through August (5-6, 20-21 and 29-30). These meetings will be in person or virtual depending on progress.

This year’s PHC MECA negotiations, as well as our pay equity claim, is about ensuring equal pay for nurses everywhere, regardless of the part of the health system you work in. More information about the Primary Practice and Urgent Care Pay Equity claim, which is separate from the PHC MECA negotiations, can be found at the bottom of this page.

Bargaining team

• Read about your bargaining team for the 2024 negotiations

Claims for the 2024 PHC MECA negotiations

• Member meetings to work out our claims for this year's bargaining were held online and in worksites between 15 and 22 April. Online claims endorsement meetings were held 23, 24 and 25 July and then endorsed by members in an online ballot. View the claims here.

Negotiations updates

• Negotiations updates will be emailed to members and posted here.

PHC MECA member updates

• All PHC MECA member updates can be found here.

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Primary Practice and Urgent Care Pay Equity claim 2024

Last year nurses directly employed by Te Whatu Ora won their historic Pay Equity campaign, resulting in Aotearoa’s largest Pay Equity settlement ever and big pay rises for nurses. It took years of effort but they eventually won. 

It will take a similar effort and extra Government funding to win Pay Equity in Primary Care, and that’s our goal. It’s simply inequitable that primary care nurses will soon be paid almost 20 percent less than our counterparts in hospitals if we don’t close the gap. 

• More information about the Primary Practice and Urgent Care Pay Equity Claim can be found here

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Growing our membership to win

Our membership in Te Whatu Ora grew significantly during the Pay Equity campaign as more nurses joined to support winning a big pay increase. We need to do the same in Primary Care. Now is a good time to talk to any staff in your worksite who are not currently members of NZNO about coming on board in support of our campaign. It’s simple – the more members we have the more power we have in PHC MECA bargaining to get the Government to increase funding to deliver on our claims. We will be sending materials to worksites soon to support recruitment of new members, but in the meantime you can go here to sign up.