Nurse pay in Wellington

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Hello,

I am finding that the Internet is not reliable in answering some questions I have about nursing in Wellington. Are nurses unionized? What are pay scales like? (I have almost 5 years thoracic surgery experience in Canada) what about vacation and overtime? Do those vary from hospital to hospital? Any suggestions for applying and how to know your not being taken advantage of when you have just moved there and are looking for a job?

Thank you!

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I see this post is old but thought I'd answer anyway. Nursing unions in NZ are not the same in Canada, you don't have unionised hospitals that require all staff to join the union. Joining the union is optional. Pay is based on the collective agreement published by the union (NZNO) for the district health boards/DHBs. The link below includes the Capital Coast DHB which is what wellington hospital falls under. If you currently have 4 years experience you would be considered 4th tier and salary is listed as 60,081$. Yes this is probably less than what you are making in Canada but also read closely into the shift premiums in the contract as I believe they are substantially higher than what I've seen in Canada. Also remember that you will start with 4 weeks paid annual leave (mandatory), there is also a section in the contract that states shift workers shall receive 5 extra days per year annual leave once they have reached a certain number of hours.

http://www.nzno.org.nz/Portals/0/Files/Documents/Support/CA/DHB%20MECA%2024%20Aug%202015%20-%2031%20July%202017WEB.pdf

hope this was helpful!

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Specializes in Telemetry, Emergency, Cardiology, Respiratory.

Hi,

Just to add to jennylee's comment.

All the District Health Boards (these are local health authorities that are responsible for health services for a specific geographic region) and the nurses' union have a MECA (multi-employer collective agreement) that gets renewed every 3 to 4 years. There is a uniform pay scale, no matter where you work in NZ. I think the only difference is getting overseas experience recognized so you can get paid under the appropriate pay scale. As an RN, there's 5 pay steps (1 being new grad and 5 being an RN with 4 or more years experience), but like I said it all depends on whether your manager recognizes overseas experience (some experienced overseas nurses I work with were put on pay step 2 despite years of experience).

To move beyond the 5 step RN pay scale, you will need experience here and professional development.

For example, I have 8 years experience in total, and I only moved here from Australia in July 2016. I'm on RN pay step 5 which pays $66,755.00/year for 1.0 FTE (roughly $32/hour). To get more money, I would need to work towards becoming a level 3 RN (currently a Level 2 on the professional development rating, level 1 being a new grad). This involves developing a ward/unit-based project, mainly to do with quality improvement. If I progress to Level 3, then I get a yearly allowance.

I think what makes the pay significantly bigger is the shift and weekend penalties. You get 150% of your normal pay for working weekends, 25% for working any hours between 2000 to 0600, 150% for public holidays plus a lieu day (paid day off, even if you don't work the public holidays, of which there are 10 per year). In effect, if you work shifts, you get 5 weeks off a year plus 10 paid days off (which you can accumulate and use as vacation leave).

There is also the designated senior nurse pay scale and the highest is like $115,000 per year or something but I'm not sure how it works.

The pay is not as big as Canada's but if you love the outdoors, New Zealand is a wonderful place to move to.

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Great response vyecheverria! Great explanation of the professional development rating

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You reckon they would recognise Canadian experience as equivalent?

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I would hope so. Having almost 5 years here then being kicked to the bottom with new grads would suck.

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Specializes in Telemetry, Emergency, Cardiology, Respiratory.
You reckon they would recognise Canadian experience as equivalent?

I'm going to say yes. Just make you get a Statement kf Service or Certificate of Employment from all your employers and make sure theu are detailed.

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What is that exactly? I'm already in New Zealand. The council has a letter that dates my job and how many practice hours I have. Am I screwed and gonna be payed the lowest tier?

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Specializes in Telemetry, Emergency, Cardiology, Respiratory.
What is that exactly? I'm already in New Zealand. The council has a letter that dates my job and how many practice hours I have. Am I screwed and gonna be payed the lowest tier?

Oh I'm sure you're fine. Do you have other copies of the letters?

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No í ½í¸ž

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Specializes in Telemetry, Emergency, Cardiology, Respiratory.
No ������

Maybe you can ask the council to return it to you?

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I think their site says they won't return any documents

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