Kia ora DHB Member,

Since last week’s update we've been working with the other parties to the DHB Nursing Pay Equity Settlement. We've focused on ensuring all Settlement details are accurately recorded and agreed to before going through the approval processes.

To recap, that's first with the DHB Chief Executives, Central Agencies Governance Group and Employment Relations Governance Group. It will then go to the Director General of Health for confirmation of the settlement, then it will finally be reviewed by the Crown Law Office.

As reported last week the parties are working to have these processes happen at the same time, so we're on track to have the Agreement details released during the week ending 8 April 2022.

There was confusion last week as some DHBs contacted employees to confirm their contact details. NZNO has been requesting this information for several months and has received it from majority of DHBs. However, some DHBs didn't have this information in a form that was useful for the purpose, and that is the likely cause of those emails.

Unions are obliged under the Equal Pay Amendment Act to inform non-union employees about how the settlement will be voted on. They then must provide the details of the Settlement to the non-union employees at the same time as we inform our members.

The DHBs have to inform all their employees that there's a claim underway within a certain timeframe. Part of that notification is that they can opt out if they wish to. The DHBs attached a form that non-union employees can use if they want to opt out of the union raised Pay Equity Settlement.

NZNO members do not need to do anything with this form because union members covered by a claim can't opt out while they remain members of the union. 

Supporting information related to the Settlement will be provided when the details of the Settlement are released (by 8 April 2022). We'll let you know the voting timeframe in our next update.

Ngā mihi,

Glenda Alexander and Lesley Harry, NZNO Pay Equity Leads