Health underfunding and low pay

The District Health Boards are currently refusing to negotiate a collective agreement for low paid health workers. This has caused the Nurses Organisation and Service and Food Workers Union to deliver a petition to Parliament demanding from the Government ‘increased pay, a boost to staffing, and better training. The Nurse Organisation indicates that caregivers can expect to earn between $10.25 and $12 per hour’. Meanwhile, strangely for a so-called Labour Party leader, Helen Clark has singled out and blamed a trade union leader for the industrial action.