The Te Whatu Ora / NZNO Collective Agreement negotiations are underway.
We need safe staffing in health care.
We need pay and conditions that value nurses, midwives and HCAs.
Te Whatu Ora ratification meetings and ballot - May 2025
Following recent facilitation with Health New Zealand, your NZNO team has continued to meet with Health New Zealand to progress your collective agreement bargaining.
A formal offer is expected on 9 May. Member meetings will be held from 13-23 May. NZNO members covered by the proposed collective agreement will be emailed a link to vote in an online ballot open 19-23 May.
Support the legal action for safe staffing at Te Whatu Ora
In November last year, NZNO filed a lawsuit against Health New Zealand arguing that the provision of safe staffing and a safe and healthy workplace is a right for all employees under our collective agreement and that Health New Zealand has breached the agreement by not providing a sufficient number of experienced staff in our hospitals.
We are now asking members around the motu that are also experiencing chronic short staffing to get involved in raising additional legal actions for each hospital. This will contribute to our ongoing collective bargaining campaign to secure enforceable, culturally appropriate nurse-to-patient ratios by enforcing our right to safe staffing under our collective agreement.
We have created an online form where members can draft their own powerful impact statements. These impact statements will form the basis of future legal actions which NZNO can file against Health New Zealand.
Lobbying Toolkit
Alongside industrial action, NZNO members are taking action to raise awareness of the issues in the health system by lobbying heir local MPs and sharing their stories in their communities. Health is now the third most important issue in the eyes of the NZ public and the work NZNO members have done to raise awareness of the issues in the health system is a huge part of the pressure the government has felt on this issue.
Click here to download the lobbying toolkit.
NZNO ward meetings and District Committee meetings
NZNO ward meetings were held 29 January - 18 February to decide next steps for bargaining, including discussing ideas for continuing to build and maintain pressure through industrial action.
From 18 February - 6 March District Committee meetings will be held in every Te Whatu Ora district to consider the feedback from the ward meetings and to make recommendations for industrial action.
The goal for bargaining remains the same - to win an offer that advances the core goals for bargaining as identified by members, that is, safe staffing and a fair deal.
December 2024 Te Whatu Ora strikes
Between November 11-15 NZNO members employed by Te Whatu Ora in roles covered by the collective agreement voted in a secure online strike ballot to hold an eight-hour nationwide strike on December 3 followed by rolling district strikes between December 9 and 20.
The December 3 strike was a complete withdrawal of labour from 11am to 7pm at every place in New Zealand where Te Whatu Ora provides health and hospital services. This was followed by rolling district strikes around the country between December 10 and 19, from 1pm to 5pm.
Click here for more information about the December Te Whatu Ora strikes.
2024 Bargaining Team
Click here for information about our bargaining team.
2024 Bargaining Updates
Click here to read updates from the bargaining team. These will be posted after each day of bargaining.
They will also be posted in the NZNO/Te Whatu Ora Facebook group.
Claims for the 2024 bargaining
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- View the endorsed claims here.
- The claims that we will take into bargaining were decided through a democratic process. Claims meetings were held 8-19 April. Online claims endorsement meetings were held during the week of 22-26 July. The claims endorsement ballot ran from 29 July to 5 August.
Action for safe staffing on Bargaining Initiation Day 30 August
On Friday 30 August we took action for safe staffing to show Te Whatu Ora that NZNO members are standing up for safe staffing and a fair deal in 2024. 30 August was the day NZNO initiated bargaining for the 2024 Te Whatu Ora collective agreement negotiations. The collective agreement expires on 31 October which makes Friday 30 August the earliest date we can legally initiate for the next round of bargaining.
See photos from Initiation Day Actions.
Bargaining timeline for the Te Whatu Ora / NZNO Collective AgreementThis timeline is indicative and may change. |
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Nov 2023 |
Meetings to launch 2024 bargaining campaign |
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Feb 2024 |
Bargaining team selected |
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April 2024 |
Claims meetings |
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May/June 2024 |
Member campaign actions focused on safe staffing |
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July 2024 |
Meetings to endorse claims for bargaining |
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30 August 2024 |
Initiate for bargaining (earliest possible date) |
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September 2024 |
Bargaining dates with Te Whatu Ora |
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September 2024 |
Potential escalating member campaign actions |
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31 October 2024 |
Current CA expires |
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November 2024 |
Nationwide stop work meetings |
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11-15 November 2024 |
Online strike ballot |
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3 December 2024 |
National Te Whatu strike |
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10-19 December 2024 |
Rolling Te Whatu Ora strikes |
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29 January - 18 February 2025 |
Ward meetings to discuss next steps for political, legal and industrial action |
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18 February - 6 March 2025 |
District committee meetings to make recommendations for industrial action |
November 2023 union meetings and launching our 2024 bargaining campaign
38 paid union meetings for Te Whatu Ora members were held right across Aotearoa in the week of 27 November-1 December 2023.
In the meetings Te Whatu Ora nurses, midwives and HCAs came together to:
- Tell the new government we expect them to deliver on fixing the nursing shortage crisis
- Understand how we will continue the fight for safe staffing in 2024 including the role of ratios
- Launch our 2024 Te Whatu Ora bargaining campaign
Media coverage of the meetings
Nurses begin fresh round of campaigning over pay and conditions
RNZ, Newstalk ZB, Newshub, Otago Daily Times, 1 News, New Zealand Herald, PMN, Northern Advocate, 27 November 2023
Nurses to campaign over pay and conditions
RNZ Audio, 27 November 2023
Aim is to put pressure on Te Whatu Ora and the new government
RNZ, 27 November 2023
Ratio Justice
Resolving the issue of insufficient staffing levels came through as the key outstanding issue following the ratification of the Te Whatu Ora Collective 2022/23. Members have been saying loud and clear that this needs to be a priority in the renewal of the collective agreement in 2024.
The longstanding problems of staffing have failed to be remedied by actions to date. In particular, while the implementation of CCDM has worked in some areas, there are still many areas where it either cannot be implemented or has not been implemented. This has placed Te Whatu Ora nurses, midwives and HCAs in dangerous situations due to lack of staff and time to do the job properly.
Overseas jurisdictions such as Queensland, Victoria, California, Ireland and British Columbia are addressing the problem of poor and dangerous staffing with the introduction of enforceable nurse-to-patient ratios. The research is clear, these ratios result in better health and safety and job satisfaction outcomes for members and better patient outcomes.
We are exploring staffing ratios that will act as a ‘safety net’, below which staffing and skill mix cannot fall, while CCDM will provide detailed staffing and skill mix which can sit above those ratios. This model is very similar to the Queensland model which is simply minimum enforceable ratios and above those ratios, flexible standards informed by CCDM. This approach keeps what works about CCDM and adds a ‘safety net’ for those areas where staffing is inadequate, or where CCDM is not implemented. This approach is broader than CCDM, covering all areas of practice. In addition, cultural requirements of Māori as patients or nurses will be taken into account in the ratios NZNO takes into bargaining next year.
Over the coming months we will develop and fine tune the ratios claim we will take into bargaining, adding a New Zealand context to what we’ve seen work internationally. There will be many opportunities for member involvement in the development of ‘Ratio Justice’.
Find out more about the Ratio Justice campaign
Download our poster "We're ready to keep fighting for safe staffing in 2024"
Enforcing our rights
Te Whatu Ora has made commitments to safe staffing in our collective agreement and has obligations to keep members safe under the Health and Safety at Work Act.
Our collective agreement includes an escalation pathway intended to alleviate acute staffing shortages, which requires direct support from Te Whatu Ora senior management and must include members and delegates. In 2021 Te Whatu Ora agreed to immediately establish and recruit to new positions recommended in annual FTE calculations. We now have another staffing clause which allows us to negotiate staffing levels even where CCDM cannot be implemented.
Over the last year we’ve increased enforcement of our rights, with health and safety reps, supported by members, issuing PIN notices, and even members taking our first ever Health and Safety strike in Tairawhiti.
Next year, alongside member action, we will increase enforcement of our rights.
We are putting Te Whatu Ora on notice – they have made commitments to us, they have obligations in law to provide a safe workplace, we will hold Te Whatu Ora to those commitments and obligations.