Some perioperative nurses will be striking on 1 May, at the same time as a senior doctor strike. Photo: Supplied/ US National Cancer Institute
Health NZ "should be ashamed of itself" for failing to recognise years of unpaid and involuntary overtime by Auckland theatre nurses, the nurses union says.
About 370 perioperative nurses working at Auckland City Hospital, Starship Hospital and Greenlane Clinical Centre will strike for two hours on 1 May - the same day senior doctors are striking.
The perioperative group includes preoperative, theatre and postoperative nurses, and the nurses taking part are members of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO).
Health unions are also organising nationwide events to mark May Day on 1 May, including rallies outside public hospitals.
The decision by theatre nurses to strike was "disappointing", Health NZ Te Whatu Ora said on Thursday. Auckland City Hospital operations group director Mike Shepherd said the planned strike action would "potentially [compound] patient impact".
But Nurses' Organisation chief executive Paul Goulter said Health NZ "should not be complaining about a nurses' strike" when the perioperative nurses had been doing involuntary and unpaid overtime for years "because they put their patients first".
Health NZ had raised "a last minute claim" in collective agreement negotiations, Goulter said. "It can only be seen as a shameful attempt to avoid paying these nurses appropriate compensation for working past their shifts to help patients having operations."
Nurses were dedicated and did not take the decision to strike lightly, he said.
"They put patient care at the forefront. The problem is Te Whatu Ora as an employer refuses to recognise their legitimate claims to be paid for the additional hours worked.
"Quite naturally, eventually, all that goodwill [does] collapse and they take that sort of action. I think Te Whatu Ora should be ashamed of themselves for failing to recognise the extra effort these nurses have put in, over a long period of time, to support the patients."
Both Health NZ and health workers' unions said they would ensure critical hospital services continue and would minimise any impact on other patient care on 1 May.
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