PHC MECA Update 6 July 2020

Kia ora koutou,

Campaign steps up!

Union meetings

As we foreshadowed in our last Update, union/stopwork meetings will be held on Thursday 23 July from 12.30-2.30pm across Aotearoa New Zealand. This is the next step after our mediation failed to reach a resolution on 29 June.

NZNO members are entitled to attend these union meetings under the Employment Relations Act 2000 which are paid time for anyone who is working during these hours. These meetings do not include lunch breaks, they are paid work time. NZNO is required to give confirmation of attendance in order for the payment to be made. However, if you are off duty you are still very welcome to attend and participate.

NZNO will be giving your employer the required 14 days notice of these meetings this week. Under the Act we are required to ensure there is sufficient staff coverage in the workplaces over the time of the meeting if that is necessary.

With the giving of 14 days notice of the meetings we fully expect employers to make every endeavour to ensure as many PHC MECA NZNO members as possible can attend a meeting. This includes using staff who are not covered by the MECA so this can happen.

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.

As we've said, while union meetings such as these have been held in other sectors of NZNO, this will be the first time for the PHC MECA, and it does make a very clear statement about your frustration in relation to pay parity not having been achieved. Visibility at the meetings will be vital to success.

A list of the meetings and Zoom options will be confirmed early next week, but please note 23 July in your diaries now..

What else this week

We will be notifying the meetings and issues to the Prime Minister, other relevant Ministers, the Chief Nurse and the Director General of Health. We will also be issuing a media release today.

Petition and posters

Please keep encouraging patients, clients, whānau and friends to sign the petition. We now have more than 9000 signatures, but we need more and quickly to keep the pressure on as we lead up to the Union / Stopwork meetings.

And as you know we have adjusted your posters so they are current, now that Seeing Red Day is over, and can remain up in the workplace highlighting the issues and the request to sign the petition. So please download and display these where patients can view them and, if possible, get them to sign the petition on their phones on the spot. We have also created slips here that can be given to patients with the petition address.  

Your employer should be supportive of the posters being placed up, and of patients/clients being asked to sign. Employers have been encouraged to do this by the NZ Medical Association and Green Cross Health Limited.

Pay parity is a shared issue!

Ngā mihi

Your NZNO negotiation team: Chris Wilson, Karen Smith, Sarah Redpath and Denise Moore