Around 35,000 nurses are set to walk off the job for a 24-hour strike on August 9 and 10 as negotiations with Te Whatu Ora around unsafe staffing levels continue to drag.
It comes after members of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa (NZNO), who are employed by Te Whatu Ora, voted overwhelmingly in support of the strike action.
The strike will take place from 7am on August 9 to 7am on August 10 at Te Whatu Ora health care providers and hospitals.
NZNO chief executive Paul Goulter said "despite the extremely difficult and unsafe working environment they face every day in our public hospitals and worksites", the nurses "do not feel they are being heard or taken seriously".
"To date, claims in negotiations around safer staffing practices, nurse to patient ratios and health and safety have pretty much fallen on deaf ears, and these members have simply had enough," he said.
Goulter said while nurses, midwives, health care assistants and kaimahi hauora are always extremely reluctant to strike due to its impact on their patients, "there comes a point when they decide they have to strike for the very wellbeing of those patients, whose health and everyday care is jeopardised by unsafe staffing levels that Te Whatu Ora refuses to address".
NZNO members will work with Te Whatu Ora to provide life preserving services at all hospitals and worksites for the duration of the strike.
The strike ballot was organised before the latest offer was received from Te Whatu Ora yesterday, Goulter said.
The union will proceed with the strike unless members vote to ratify the recently received offer, he said. A ratification vote will open on August 1 and close on August 7.
A strike notice will be issued to Te Whatu Ora on Monday, July 24.
In a statement, Te Whatu Ora's national director of Hospital and Specialist Services, Fionnagh Dougan, confirmed it was made aware of the intended strike action.
"Te Whatu Ora is disappointed that NZNO has refused to defer giving notice of any strike action until after the ratification outcome for the Collective Agreement settlement is known," Dougan said.
In addition, NZNO Te Whatu Ora members are also set to vote on a Pay Equity offer from the Government and Te Whatu Ora, which is meant to address long-standing gender discrimination, Goulter said.
"Pay Equity is an entirely separate process from collective agreement negotiations because it addresses a historic undervaluation of a female-dominated profession that simply has to be corrected."
The Pay Equity ratification ballot will open on July 24 and close on July 31.
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