A major health-sector pay deal will be announced today, if three health unions jointly negotiating it ratified the proposal last night.
New Zealand Nurses Organisation national industrial adviser, Glenda Alexander, said the proposal included a 2% pay rise, to take effect nine months into the 18-month agreement.
A joint announcement by the NZNO, Service and Food Workers Union, the Public Service Association and District Health Boards New Zealand is expected today at 3pm.
Ms Alexander said she believed the joint bargaining was a first for the health sector, whose unions normally negotiated individually.
A "tricky" economic environment, in which the Government had signalled there was little money for pay rises, prompted the joint approach.
Bargaining was "intense", the unions reaching their position with DHBNZ early this month after just a week's negotiation.
Unions then sought the agreement of individual members.
The deal could only go ahead if all three unions agreed.
Each union would maintain separate contracts; however, all would adopt the 18-month term of the proposal, to take effect when individual unions' agreements expired.
Aside from the pay rise, other allowances and conditions would remain unchanged.
Issues such as health and safety, which would normally be raised during wage rounds, could be relayed to health boards using other processes, Ms Alexander said.
If ratified, it was expected the proposal would be picked up by other Council of Trade Unions member unions, such as the National Distribution Union, and the EPMU, for their district health board members.
About 2500 Otago and Southland health board NZNO members were affected by the proposal, she said.
