The Te Whatu Ora / NZNO Collective Agreement negotiations got underway in September 2024. 

We need safe staffing in health care. We need pay and conditions that value nurses, midwives and HCAs.

Member meetings and Ratification ballot

A proposed Terms of Settlement offer was received on 20 April from Te Whatu Ora to settle the NZNO Collective Agreement. This is the first formal offer that has been received from Te Whatu Ora since May 2025. It followed a week of engagement and bargaining. It is now time for members to collectively make the decision about whether the offer is accepted or rejected through a ratification ballot. 

  • Member meetings in person and online to discuss the offer will get underway from 30 April.
  • An online ratification ballot to be held from 11 May closing at 5pm on 15 May.

Click here for more information

Bargaining claims

Bargaining Team

Click here for information about our bargaining team.

Te Whatu Ora bargaining meetings 9-13 February 2026

Bargaining update meetings for NZNO members at Te Whatu Ora will run from 9-13 February. Members will be emailed information about when and where meetings will be held in your District. Please contact your delegate if you need more information. 

In addition there will be two online meetings on Friday 13 February at 1pm and 4:30pm for members who have been unable to get to a meeting in their worksite. Check your email for details. 

Member survey 11-17 February 2026

On Wednesday 11 February members will be emailed a link to a short, confidential online survey where members will choose between two directions for your bargaining. Come to a meeting this week to find out more about the survey that will close next Tuesday 17 February. Your collective feedback will give the bargaining team a clear steer ahead of the next bargaining date on 19 February.

For more information about why these meetings and the survey are so important, see the message below from our bargaining team chair and Hawke's Bay delegate Noreen McCallan. Please also check with workmates that they are planning to attend a meeting and have their say in the survey.

 

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Your NZNO bargaining team in January 2026. Dawn Barrett, Noreen McCallan, Al Dietschin, Nano Tunnicliff (on screen), Rachel Thorn, Maria Tutahi (on screen), Glenda Huston, Lyn Logan, Debbie Handisides.

Kia ora colleagues,

The actions you took throughout 2025 were unprecedented. You undertook the most strikes by public hospital nurses in the history of Aotearoa New Zealand. Visibility strikes continuing over the Christmas and New Year break and kept the pressure on Te Whatu Ora. They have also raised public awareness of the dire need to properly resource the public health system.

While some progress has been slowly made over the past 16 months, agreement has only been reached on 13 of 40 issues taken into bargaining by members. We have achieved a rewording of the shift coordinator clause which clarifies the application of this payment. We also obtained an additional step in the Enrolled Nurses pay scale, reflecting the expanded scope of practice.

However, the Government continues to reject many of your claims. There has been no commitment to establishing enforceable safe staffing levels as determined by CCDM calculations. No commitment to implementing nurse to patient ratios beginning with a research programme with enforceable recommendations. Or enforceable higher levels of nurse graduate hires. Hiring our new nurses is critical to developing a homegrown and sustainable workforce. We also need to see a commitment to recognise and value the work of Designated Senior Nurses and to have the all-important te Tiriti claims around the tikanga process and Māori resolution disputes process reinstated.

We also know that in the past 16 months, the cost of living has risen even higher and many whānau are doing it tough. Pay remains a significant barrier to the settlement of our collective agreement. Te Whatu Ora’s current position does not meet your claim for a wage increase that matches increases to the cost of living. This is no doubt disappointing for you, as it is for us.

We want to hear from you

It’s now a new year and it is time to look at where we are going. It is also time to report back to members and hear from you what direction our next steps should take. To do this, we will be holding meetings in the week beginning Monday 9 February. Te Whatu Ora has agreed you can attend these meetings; and we encourage you to come along.

Meetings are being organised in every district. Look out for information locally about meetings at your worksite.

We will also be surveying members to ensure everyone has an opportunity to give their feedback and their view of how we move forward from here. Look out for the survey which will be launched on Wednesday 11 February and close on Tuesday 17 February, ahead of the next scheduled bargaining dates. It’s confidential, anonymous and won’t take you long to complete. It’s important that we hear from every one of you as we plot the year ahead.

A message from your team

Please know your bargaining team is not ready to give up. We believe we can achieve more of what you need to do your job safely and be paid fairly for your hard work. Your team is 100% united in its belief we have come too far to walk away now with less than you asked for. I would personally find it soul destroying. However, we understand some of you may be frustrated by how long we have been in bargaining. That’s why we need to hear from you.

Please make sure you have your say!

Yours in solidarity,
Noreen McCallan, Bargaining team chair
Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa NZNO

Read about Visibility Strikes in Kaitiaki

From late-2025 NZNO members in Canterbury, Taupō, Whangarei and Waitematā voted to undertake a new form of partial strike action: Visibility Strikes. Find out more about Visibility Strikes in Kaitiaki at the following links.

Safe Staffing Strikes, 17-30 November 2025 

NZNO members at Te Whatu Ora voted strongly in favour of Safe Staffing strikes between 17-30 November. These involved refusing redeployment, refusing to work additional hours or shifts, and refusing to agree to changes to their roster proposed by Te Whatu Ora. 

More information about the Safe Staffing strikes here.

Te Whatu Ora national strike 23 October 2025 

NZNO Te Whatu Ora members voted strongly in favour of taking national strike action from 1100-1500 on Thursday 23 October 2025. The decision to take this further strike action showed that Te Whatu Ora members are committed to achieving their goals raised in bargaining around enforceable safe staffing and patient safety as well as pay increases that don’t mean a pay cut. 

More than 100,000 public sector workers including teachers, principals, support staff, doctors and allied health have also voted for strike action on Thursday 23 October. Te Whatu Ora nurses, midwives and health care assistants stood shoulder to shoulder and call on the Government to invest in public services so we have the resources to fix understaffing in our hospitals, schools, fire stations and other essential public services.

Lobbying to fix understaffing at Te Whatu Ora

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 second 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. WE're calling on MPs to support our solutions to fix understaffing.

NZNO’S SOLUTIONS TO FIX UNDERSTAFFING AT TE WHATU ORA

  • Staff-to-patient ratios

We need Te Whatu Ora to agree to work with NZNO on a research program which will provide the evidence base needed to support the introduction of ratios alongside CCDM, thereby supporting safe staffing into the future.

  • Recommit to CCDM for safe staffing

We need Te Whatu Ora to reconfirm its commitment to the CCDM programme and, in particular, complete the FTE calculations they stopped from October 2024. The FTE calculations determine a safe staffing level, based on patient need and need to be redone each year to make sure staffing levels are right.

  • The full employment of new graduates

New Zealand has one of the highest proportions of Internationally Qualified nurses in the OECD and we rely heavily on these nurses to support our health system. Meanwhile, less than half of the most recent new graduate group were offered places in the new entry to practice programme by Te Whatu Ora. The first year of practice is incredibly important for new graduates to cement their learning and remain in the profession, or in New Zealand.

Click here to download the lobbying toolkit (Sept 2025 version).

Te Whatu Ora strikes 2 and 4 September 2025

NZNO members at Te Whatu Ora voted strongly to strike from 0700-2300 on 2 September and 4 September. 

Te Whatu Ora strike 30-31 July 2025

NZNO members at Te Whatu Ora voted strongly to take strike action on from 9am on 30 July to 9am on 31 July. Following a round of stop work meetings, Te Whatu Ora said they had an improved offer. However, events led to an offer that was worse, suggesting there had been political interference in our bargaining.

Te Whatu Ora offer 30 June 2025

We received an offer from Te Whatu Ora to settle your collective agreement bargaining. Te Whatu Ora have said this offer was only available if ratified by members by 31 July.

Click here to see the offer, including a comparision with the May 2025 offer.

Te Whatu Ora initially invited us to a meeting to discuss the offer, which your bargaining team accepted. Te Whatu Ora then withdrew that invitation only wanting to receive written questions or points of clarification. In our view this amounts to a breach of good faith.

Instead of being an improved offer, Te Whatu Ora have withdrawn parts of the offer they made in May 2025 (which members voted to reject). It is also worse than their position in bargaining last week.

On 4 July we sent our proposal for settlement to Te Whatu Ora.

Among other things, we included a process for Te Whatu Ora to immediately recruit into roles shown as necessary through the CCDM programme, reinstated the requirement for Te Whatu Ora to consider the results of the research into staffing ratios, included a cost-of-living increase, an additional increase for those in Designated Senior roles and improvements to Kiwisaver. You can see OUR proposal here.

Te Whatu Ora bargaining 

Preparation for bargaining started in late 2023, involving a claims and bargaining team selection process with a focus on member involvement and transparency of the process.

We initiated bargaining on September 3 2024, following the 60 day initiation window opening on 31 August, aiming to begin bargaining as quickly as possible.

Bargaining began on September 5, with a ‘pre-bargaining’ session and we subsequently met for 16 days of bargaining, including mediation aimed at settling the agreement and
avoiding strike action.

Following bargaining and mediation, we applied to the Employment Relations Authority for facilitated bargaining, which occurred in late March / early April.

The Employment Relations Authority provided it’s recommendations in April. These recommendations are not binding on the parties, neither members, nor Health NZ are required to agree with the recommendations. We immediately shared the recommendations to members and met with Health NZ to discuss the offer they would make. On 12 May Health NZ provided an offer to members, which we will go through at the ratification meetings.

Following the ratification meetings, we will run an online ratification ballot, where members will decide whether to accept, or reject the Health NZ offer. That decision will be decided by a majority vote of members who are entitled to vote, and who do vote. 

After eight months of bargaining, Health NZ have presented an offer which:

  • Does not cover increases to the cost of living;
  • Have not guaranteed that clinical need, as determined by the safe staffing programme CCDM, will take priority when determining staffing levels;
  • Have not agreed to offer permanent, full employment to new graduates, despite having done so in the past and despite New Zealand not training enough nurses to meet our own workforce needs.

Ratification documents

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.

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.

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

Action for safe staffing on Bargaining Initiation Day 30 August 2024

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.

 

Timeline of the Te Whatu Ora / NZNO Collective Agreement bargaining

Nov 2023

Meetings to launch 2024 bargaining campaign

Feb 2024

Bargaining team selected

April 2024

Claims meetings

May/June 2024

Member campaign actions focused on safe staffing

July 2024

Meetings to endorse claims for bargaining

30 August 2024

Initiate for bargaining (earliest possible date)

September 2024

Bargaining dates with Te Whatu Ora

31 October 2024

Current CA expires

November 2024

Nationwide stop work meetings 

11-15 November 2024

Online strike ballot

3 December 2024

National Te Whatu strike

10-19 December 2024

Rolling Te Whatu Ora strikes

29 January - 18 February 2025

Ward meetings to discuss next steps for political, legal and industrial action

18 February - 6 March 2025

District committee meetings to make recommendations for industrial action
April 2025

Facilitation between NZNO and Health NZ

3 - 13 June 2025

Mass stop-work meetings

30 June 2025

Ratification offer received from Health NZ

30-31 July 2025

National 24 hour strike

2 and 4 September 2025

National strikes 0700-2300

23 October 2025

National strike 1100-1500

17-30 November

Safe Staffing strikes

9-13 February 2026

Bargaining update meetings

11-17 February 2026

Member survey

 

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

 

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.