{"id":300329,"date":"2026-02-24T21:10:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T21:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/300329\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T21:10:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T21:10:10","slug":"health-nz-and-psa-reach-deal-after-months-of-negotiating-and-strike-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/300329\/","title":{"rendered":"Health NZ and PSA reach deal after months of negotiating and strike action"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Doctor<\/p>\n

\nThe agreement included a pay increase of 2.5 percent from December 2025 and a further 2 percent from December this year.
\nPhoto: 123RF\n<\/p>\n

After months of negotiating and strike action, Health New Zealand and the union for allied health workers have reached a deal.<\/p>\n

The Public Service Association (PSA) said its more than 12,000 members<\/a> – including physiotherapists, anaesthetic technicians, and social workers – voted overwhelmingly to accept the union-backed offer.<\/p>\n

The new collective agreement included a pay increase of 2.5 percent from December 2025 and a further 2 percent from December this year, in addition to a $500 lump sum payment.<\/p>\n

Health New Zealand said it welcomed the successful ratification.<\/p>\n

Executive national director for people and culture Robyn Shearer said around 12,300 employees would benefit from the pay increase.<\/p>\n

She said the agreement recognised the effort and hard work of Allied, Public Health, Scientific and Technical staff, who operated across the health system.<\/p>\n

“We acknowledge and thank the PSA for their constructive approach to reaching a settlement.”<\/p>\n

The union said there was also a commitment to a new pay scale for sterile sciences technicians (who work with medical devices in operating theatres and wards), to improve safe staffing and set up a $400,000 national professional development fund.<\/p>\n

PSA national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons said while the union didn’t get everything it asked for, it accepted it was the the best offer it could get for now.<\/p>\n

She put the result down to industrial action.<\/p>\n

“These workers went on strike during the Mega Strike on 23 October 2025 as well as a further strike late last year and their actions have made a difference.<\/p>\n

“This outcome after seven months of bargaining shows what workers can achieve when they stand together.”<\/p>\n

Fitzsimons said allied health workers delivered essential care to New Zealanders every day and the settlement was recognition of their contribution.<\/p>\n

She said voting was now underway for two other collectives that covered more than 4000 members including mental health and public health nurses.<\/p>\n

Health Minister Simeon Brown said he was pleased for the thousands of healthcare workers who would get a pay rise under the new deal.<\/p>\n

He said they played a critical role in patient care and the settlement acknowledged that important work.<\/p>\n

“This ratification follows the recent approval of collective agreements for APEX Pharmacy and APEX Psychologists members, continuing progress on workforce settlements across the health sector.<\/p>\n

“I want to acknowledge Health New Zealand and the unions for their work as these agreements are reached.”<\/p>\n

Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The agreement included a pay increase of 2.5 percent from December 2025 and a further 2 percent from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45],"class_list":{"0":"post-300329","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-current-affairs","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-podcasts","15":"tag-public-radio","16":"tag-radio-new-zealand","17":"tag-rnz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}