On Tuesday 20 August the NZNO and Employer representatives met to continue the bargaining for the renewal of the PHC MECA. The employer representatives (GenPro, GreenCross, PCBC and Jenny Miller) provided us with high level information that they had gathered through their survey of the (470 approx.) employers they represent. The survey asked for feedback from the employers on all of the NZNO PHC MECA Members claims. The survey participants were asked for an indication of their support or otherwise on all the claims.
The employer representatives are going to provide us with more detailed feedback by the end of this week. We will be arranging paid union meetings for members to have the opportunity to discuss what the indicative feedback has identified and what that means in the context of progressing our claims through the bargaining process, and what actions we could collectively take to increase the visibility of our PHC MECA members work and the current inequities with to the underfunding of Primary Health on how they are paid and their conditions at work.
Look out for more information and meeting details next week.
On 5 August the parties to the PHC MECA (representatives of the 477 employers and representatives of 3,200 NZNO members) met to formally commence the negotiations for the renewal of the MECA.
There was a presentation from the employer reps on the current status of primary health care funding and how that is being applied. NZNO presented members issues and claims which were received respectfully by the employer representatives.
We adjourned the joint meeting yesterday afternoon, with the employers requesting some further clarification on our issues which they will use to work through the costings of each claim in preparation for our next meeting.
The NZNO team used the time today to work together on clarifying our issues and pulling the requested information together.
Next Steps
The parties will meet again on 20 August to continue the negotiations, and then the next dates as set are 29 and 30 August. By this stage we hope to have identified solutions or at least have made progress on what the possibilities for resolution of our issues could be.
