A breakdown in talks with Access Home Health has led to 150 nurses striking nationwide.
Nurses in the Otago region picketed outside the Access care service in Macandrew Rd yesterday asking for pay parity.
Dunedin nurse Cyrin Stroud said it had been a year since their collective agreement expired.
"We feel we’re not heard and were undervalued because we have been fighting for a year."
She felt the education she had undertaken to qualify as a home support nurse was not worth it.
Nurses were faced with constant turnover and the ones that remained were struggling, she said.
Oamaru-based nurse Liz Walker with 20 years’ experience said working as a home support nurse had changed significantly and the pressure on nurses was huge.
"It’s not just a little bit of a shower and bit of cleaning; now socially people’s lives are more complex ... You’re not only doing the nursing side but you put on your social worker hat or whatever is needed."
She said she served more than 260 clients from Omarama through Waitaki to Moeraki.
"I’ve found I’ve been doing work in the weekends because you just have to."
She would have to triage and work with clients who required more urgent attention first.
New Zealand Nurses Organisation Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa (NZNO) delegate Linda Ewbank said nurses had had enough.
"Members are fed-up. The decision to strike was made because we have reached our wits’ end.
"For a year we have been patient. Every day our nurses go the extra mile for the people we care for. Now we have no other choice but to put our family’s needs first.
"This strike is really about the workers getting paid a fair wage. Quite frankly we’re asking for a cost-of-living increase, but their offer is not even close to that."
She said Access, originally was a not-for-profit business and was bought by the Australian Private Equity Firm Anchorage in 2023.
Anchorage had little to no experience in the care sector in New Zealand, she said.
"Sadly, our owners don’t seem to understand that Kiwi nurses working in the community are fundamental to keeping patients safe at home.
"To date Access has chosen to blame the government over a lack of funding without taking seriously the opportunities of additional investment that their new owners should be applying."
