Paul Goulter: Nurses Organisation chief executive on Health NZ offering voluntary redundancies

There's questions over how frontline work can be done, as Health New Zealand offers voluntary redundancies.

The PSA says these cuts are to jobs in admin, procurement, policy, communications, information, research and monitoring.

It says they come on top of a hiring freeze of backroom staff in June, that left hundreds of roles unfilled.

Nurses Organisation chief executive Paul Goulter says cutting too deep behind the scenes has a knock-on effect up front.

"That's the feedback we've been getting all day, with nurses saying - who's going to do that work? And if it's us, who's going to do the rest of the work we have to leave behind?"

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Health New Zealand. Health New Zealand has started a new
round of restructuring. It's asking for voluntary redundancies from anyone
working in health administration, advisory and knowledge roles. To apply
for redundancy. Health Commissioner Alista Levy has previously said that
they need to cut between two thy five hundred and
three thousand back office staff to save money. Nurses Organization

(00:21):
Chief executive Paul Golter is with us on this.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Hey, Paul, good, good afternoon.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
Do we know how many they may cut in this
round of redundancy?

Speaker 2 (00:30):
No, No, we don't, which is one of the unfortunate
things that have resulted from their failure to follow a
proper consultation process. So we're unable to answer that. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
Now, I mean, we'll probably disagree about whether the back
office is a little bit fat here, but I mean
I think what we will agree on is if you
cut too deep, it affects the front front of line staff,
doesn't it.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Yeah, And that's the that's the feedback we've been getting
all day as a nursa is saying, well, who's going
to do that work? And if it's us, who's going
to do the rest of the work we have to
leave behind. So there's real knock on effects in this
sort of thing, and that's the sort of thing that
should have been worked through with us.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
But do you guys want to have a say on it?

Speaker 2 (01:16):
Well, the proposition has always come from the employer, But
basically there are consultation clauses inside the collective agreements which
require the employer to bring the their proposal to the
table and you sit down and you have a talk
about the numbers, and you wik your way through it,
and ultimately a proposal will emerge, which will be the
employer's proposal, and ultimately it's their decision. But working through

(01:40):
that process is way better understanding that what's going on,
and a chance to say, maybe, as an employee, you
got it.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
Wrong, Paul, but I mean with respect, While I do
totally understand that you guys want to have to say,
if they have to consult with every single union that
is represented in a hospital, they will be consulting for
months because it's you guys, it's the doctors, it's the
other doctors, it's the cleaners, it's everybody.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
Yeah, well, they should have thought about it that when
they put those clauses into the agreement.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
Is the agreement, is that clause in the agreement not
pertaining to consultation with the affected union, not every other union.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
With the book. So I can only expect, obviously for
ended no, and we definitely have that clause, and I
understand that's common to the others. But we will be
affected by the proposal. There's no doubt to talk about that.
And so we just didn't get a chance to have
a conversation at all about that. So it was just
pretty much announced.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
Does your so do your contracts, your collective agreements say
that they have to consult with you guys, not just
on redundancies that affect nurses, but on redundancies that affect
literally any job that may be adjacent.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
To a nurse it's affected by is the test and
I think you put your finger on it right opening question.
You know, the knock on effects of taking roles out,
particularly in a very and a dependent industry like our
health has a real iumpact.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
Paul, Can you assure me that you guys are not
just being difficult to make life difficult for a center
right government that you don't support, because this just feels
a bit picky from you.

Speaker 2 (03:16):
No, I think enforcing or having your contractful obligations in
the cliquic agreements met. I think that's independent of who's
in power, and more importantly, they're there to get a
better outcome than just one party saying this is the
rules and you've got to abide by them.

Speaker 1 (03:33):
Paul, listen. Thank you very much. I really appreciate I actually, Paul,
before I let you go, do you know anything about
what's going on here with the HDU department in Wellington?

Speaker 2 (03:43):
I'm sorry, I just you just dropped out HDU partners.

Speaker 1 (03:47):
No, no, do you anything about what's going on with
the HDU the High Dependency Unit in Wellington Regional Hospital?

Speaker 2 (03:52):
No, no, I don't. I'm sorry. I know there's constant
problems here.

Speaker 1 (03:57):
You're not expected to know everything. Thank you very much,
PAULA really appreciate it. Paul Goalter from the New Zealand
Nurses Organization. For more from hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen
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