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Maria Tutahi<\/p>\nAfter a six week wait, Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ (HNZ) said new pay rates would start to roll out this month for more than 35,000 of their nurses, health-care assistants and midwives.<\/p>\n
Relief Tiriti claims intact after \u2018whiplash\u2019 talks<\/p>\n
Waikato registered nurse (RN) Maria Tutahi said she was happy that NZNO\u2019s Te Tiriti claims for tikanga M\u0101ori p\u016btea allowance and kaupapa M\u0101ori dispute policy were part of the new agreement.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re so happy that it got on there \u2014 it was on and off, it would give you whiplash!\u201d said Tutahi, also in the bargaining team. \u201cI\u2019m really happy we\u2019re going to be able to shape these two kaupapa and we are going to have input into it, on behalf of M\u0101ori nurses.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maria Tutahi<\/p>\n
Tikanga M\u0101ori p\u016btea was a financial acknowledgement of the cultural expectations which often fell on staff with p\u016bkenga (expertise) M\u0101ori.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really happy that we can look forward to something that works for us and we have input in the creation of. It could have been something else \u2014 non-M\u0101ori telling us what we should do in this space, but it\u2019s not. It\u2019s us. That\u2019s what I\u2019m happy about.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both were being worked on by NZNO\u2019s M\u0101ori governance arm Te Poari and HNZ, but were expected to be in place by early 2027.<\/p>\n
Tutahi said the 20 month bargaining had been gruelling, costing her 80 days away from her wh\u0101nau. \u201cIt was so much. It was hard on them \u2014 but it was really hard on me.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, it also had up sides \u2014 strong relationships with the team, more knowledge and deeper appreciation of previous teams.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt opened my eyes to a lot of things I just took for granted. I wasn\u2019t as familiar as I am now with everything in the collective. I have more knowledge \u2014 and more consideration of what previous teams have put into negotiations.\u201d<\/p>\n
And while her team all had their own, often strong, opinions, there was no \u201cbad blood\u201d, Tutahi said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would just disagree \u2014 that\u2019s it. We were very professional. I couldn\u2019t have been with a better team.\u201d<\/p>\n
T\u014dp\u016btanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa-NZNO HNZ members voted in mid-May to accept<\/a> a 4.5 per cent pay rise over two years \u2014 2.5 per cent from March 2, 2026, then another 2 per cent from March 2, 2027. Enrolled nurses also get a $2000 increase to their step five rate in recognition of their expanded scope; and nurse practitioners an annual $6000 professional development allowance, both from March 2, 2026.<\/p>\n But six weeks later by late June, they had still not kicked in.<\/p>\n HNZ has now confirmed to Kaitiaki the first payments will start this month, July, and be completed \u201cin stages\u201d by September.<\/p>\n All will be backdated to March 2.<\/p>\n Bargaining team member Rachel Thorn, a Whang\u0101rei emergency nurse, welcomed the news. She said it had been frustrating after such drawn-out bargaining to face yet more delays.<\/p>\n Thanking staff for their patience, acting people and culture director Deborah Kent told Kaitiaki HNZ was working through a large number of collective agreements that covered about 64,680 employees.<\/p>\n A $1000 lump sum (or $1300 for designated senior nurses\/midwives) was also on track to be paid by mid-August \u2014 within three months of the new agreement\u2019s signing \u2014 as agreed, Thorn said.<\/p>\n Safe staffing \u2018wins\u2019 Auckland RN Dawn Barrett, also on the bargaining team, said two key safe staffing changes agreed in the new collective were almost settled: More transparency around vacancies and recruitment and better reporting pathways for floor staff experiencing unsafe staffing.<\/p>\n \u201cThey are essentially giving staff licence to raise consistently unresolved issues, especially with patient or staff safety \u2014 and HNZ will act,\u201d Barrett said.<\/p>\n \u201cPreviously, the incident reporting system\u00a0 went into some ether and never got replied to . . . so people didn\u2019t feel that, even if they raised the issue and did the datex form, that anything happened, or they didn\u2019t feel listened to \u2014 or it just disappeared.\u201d<\/p>\n Barrett said she expected news of an updated safe staffing escalation system and vacancy reporting within a month.<\/p>\n Pay equity<\/p>\n Rachel Thorn said since 2025 Equal Pay amendments<\/a> removed regular pay equity reviews, bargaining was the only means HNZ members could keep up with male-dominated workforces. Yet the current deal fell well short of that.<\/p>\n \u201cThe sad thing is about the pay is we\u2019ve allowed them to erode our pay equity which we only gained a few years ago. Now there\u2019s no mechanism to review it, the only way to prove our pay gap and keep up with inflation is to go into bargaining \u2014 and we know how great that is.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/qq-e1767664042802.jpg\")
Rachel Thorn<\/p>\n
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Dawn Barrett<\/p>\n
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NZNO\u2019s bargaining team, from left, Dawn Barrett, Noreen McCallan, Allister Dietschin, Nano Tunnicliff (on screen), Rachel Thorn, Maria Tutahi (on screen), Dawn Barrett, Lyn Logan and Debbie Handisides.<\/p>\n