Above: Stopwork meeting Motueka, 23 July 2020

PHC MECA Update 24 September 2020

Kia ora koutou,

Important meeting

DHB, Ministry representatives and the PHC MECA employer representatives met today in Wellington today to discuss an approach for funding pay parity.

Negotiations

Negotiations are confirmed by all parties for Monday 28 September.

Union/stopwork meetings

DATE:  Wednesday 30 September 2020
TIME:   10am  – 12 Midday                                                                               

NZNO members are entitled to attend these union meetings under the Employment Relations Act 2000. They are paid time for anyone who is working during these hours. These meetings do not include your lunch breaks, they are paid work time.

The two hours includes 30 minutes travel time to and from the meetings. Note the substantive part of the meetings will therefore run from 10.30am – 11.30am to facilitate travel.

NZNO has advised your employer that you are entitled to attend a meeting and if they believe their operations cannot continue without some NZNO members they need to contact NZNO to make arrangements. NZNO has given employers at least 14 days notice of the meeting so we would in the first instance prefer alternatives such as other staff covering, or rescheduling of non-urgent matters to facilitate NZNO members attending.

The objective will be for as many NZNO members as possible to leave every workplace for two hours to attend a meeting. These will be offsite meetings in as many centres as can be arranged, and Zoom options will be available where this is not possible.

Face-to-face meetings

A national schedule of these is below. It is expected that members who can attend within 30 minutes each way travel time do leave their workplace and attend a meeting. Talk to your colleagues and discuss car pooling. We have endeavoured to provide venues where parking is accessible.

Zoom meetings

Details of how to access these Zoom meetings will be through to you by Monday 28 September. Due to limited capacity these are clearly for members in those worksites where it is not possible to actually travel to a meeting.

The travel time is also facilitated for these meetings. It may be, for example in smaller areas, that you want to gather at a colleague’s house offsite and attend the Zoom meeting as a group – as the workplace may not be a suitable venue for the length of the meetings. We are encouraging a group approach in the worksite to utilise Zoom, rather than multi individuals so as to offer access to as many workplaces as possible.

There is the potential for real progress to be made on 28 September. If this is the case and a proposed collective agreement is looking imminent then we may, at short notice, need to postpone the stopwork meetings.

Ngā mihi

Chris Wilson

Meeting venues

Whangārei: Whangārei RSA, 16 Hannah Street, Whangārei

Auckland-Glenfield: Glenfield Community Centre – Mission Hall,96 Bentley Avenue Glenfield, North Shore, Auckland

Auckland-Papakura: Alfriston Hall – Main Hall, 300 Mill Road Papakura, Auckland

Auckland-Te Atatu: Te Atatu South Community Centre – Main Hall, 595 Te Atatu Road, Te Atatu Peninsula, Auckland

Auckland-Three Kings: Fickling Convention Centre – Lynfield Room, 546 Mt Albert Road, Three Kings, Auckland

Hamilton: Hamilton Working Mens Club – Pavilion, 45 Commerce Street, Frankton, Hamilton

Te Awamutu: Te Awamutu RSA – Lounge Room, 381 Alexandra St, Te Awamutu

Thames: Working Mens Club, 407 Cochrane Street, Thames

Rotorua: Parksyde Community Centre, 7-9 Tarewa Place, Rotorua

Tauranga: Wesley Methodist Church Hall, 100 13th Avenue (between Fraser St & Cameron Rd), Tauranga

Papamoa: Papamoa Community Centre at the Library – Mako Room, 15 Gravatt Road, Papamoa Beach

Taupō: Great Lakes Centre, 5 Storey Place, Taupō

Whakatāne: Acacia House Conference Centre – upstairs, 19 Louvain Street, Whakatāne

Palmerston North: Milson Community Centre, 77 Milson Line, Palmerston North

Masterton: YMCA – Conference Room, 371 Queen Street, Masterton

Whanganui: Christ Church Community Centre, 243 Wicksteed Street, Whanganui

Hastings: Harding Hall, Hastings Hospital Site, McLeod Street, Hastings

Stratford: TET Stadium – upstairs, 62 Portia Street, Stratford

Johnsonville: Johnsonville Community Centre – the Trust Room, 3 Frankmoore Avenue, Johnsonville, Wellington

Lower Hutt: Knox Presbyterian Church – Board Room, 574 High Street, Lower Hutt, Wellington

Wellington: NZ Nurses Organisation – Level 5 - Training Room Findex House,  57 Willis Street, Wellington

Blenheim: Wesley Centre Methodist Parish, 3 Henry Street, Blenheim

Motueka:  Motueka Community House, Decks Reserve, Motueka

Nelson: Founders Park – The Granery, 87 Atawhai Drive, Nelson

Christchurch: Cashmere Club – Cashmere Lounge, 50 Colombo Street, Cashmere, Christchurch

Timaru: Caroline Bay Trust Aoraki Centre (CBay), 11 Te Weka Street, Timaru

Dunedin: NZNO Dunedin Office, Training Room 10th Floor, John Wickliffe House, 265 Princes Street, Dunedin

Invercargill: to be advised as soon as possible

Queenstown: St Peter's Anglican Church, 2 Church Street, Queenstown