DHB

A recent Employment Court judgement considered the meaning of "retirement" in Waikato District Health Board's (DHB) retiring gratuity provision under the DHB/NZNO multiemployer collective agreement (MECA).

The strategy for the negotiations is to achieve pay parity with the DHB MECA.

The Waikato DHB proposed a restructure of its health promoter positions, including Archibald's, to provide a better "health setting focus" for the team.

Hard-to-staff areas for DHB-employed midwives are the three Auckland DHBs, along with Bay of Plenty (BoP), Northland, Waikato and Canterbury.

Speaking after the mediated negotiations, NZNO DHB industrial adviser and lead advocate Lesley Harry said the DHB team had committed to look at its ability "to reconstruct an offer that met NZNO members' needs.

When it was announced the following day that the DHB offer had been rejected, I understood.

The new positions have been funded from the DHB's contingency fund but will be built into the nursing budget from July next year, the DHB's director of nursing, Chris McKenna, said.

Early this month, Waikato DHB revealed Murray had spent more than $218,000 in taxpayers' money in his three-year tenure at the DHB.

She has worked at Counties Manukau DHB for the past 40 years and is a foundation member of Faleola Services (Pacific mental health), where she has worked for the past 16 years.