College of Midwives Gets Behind Midwifery Union's Pay Equity Bid

MERAS’s pay equity claim on behalf of employed midwives is strongly supported by the College of Midwives.

Acting Chief Executive, Alison Eddy, says the work of midwives has been undervalued for too long.

“Our midwifery-led maternity system is one of the best in the world and it must be resourced properly. This clearly isn’t happening, and this is one of the reasons why parts of New Zealand are struggling with an insufficient number of midwives,” she says.

Eddy says midwives are committed and passionate health professionals, who care deeply about the care they provide to women and their babies. Their commitment is has kept them practicing despite chronic underfunding both in hospitals and in the community.

“Midwives carry significant responsibility, ensuring the health of both mother and her baby. All midwives are able to assess, diagnose, treat and prescribe for women and babies in their care. Midwives are not “a different type of nurse”; midwifery is a separate profession and it is time midwives were paid in accordance with the responsibilities of their role,” says Alison Eddy. “We have had enough of being undervalued.”

Alison Eddy says employed midwives have a clear pathway to achieving pay equity through the government’s pay equity process which applies to all employed workers and the College believes MERAS has a strong case to achieve pay equity for employed midwives given the nature of their role.

“Self-employed community LMC midwives are not entitled to use the same mechanism because it only applies to employees. However, we are continuing to hold the government to account to adhere to the principles of pay equity agreed through the mediation agreement and signed with them, on behalf of our self-employed members,” she adds.

The College strongly believes that MERAS’s pay equity claim on behalf of employed midwives is complementary to and supports the College’s work towards achieving pay equity for self-employed midwives. These two processes are required as midwives, both employed and self-employed, have been historically and systematically undervalued both as a women’s profession and as an autonomous profession.

“We consider it important that all midwives are paid appropriately for their work as indeed should be the case for everyone. The midwifery-led maternity system in New Zealand is world-leading. Paying midwives fair and correct remuneration for work done will keep midwives in practice, help to grow and strengthen the profession, and is the only way to ensure that women and babies in New Zealand continue to receive the high-quality care they deserve both in the community and in hospitals,” says Alison Eddy.

Ends                                                                                                     www.midwife.org.nz/

Q&A

How does this pay equity claim on behalf of MERAS relate to the pay equity claim taken by the New Zealand College of Midwives?

There are two main ways that midwives can work in New Zealand:

• As a self-employed Lead Maternity Carer (LMC) midwives are paid directly by the Ministry of Health to provide care to a caseload of women.  LMC midwives generally work in small group practices. As they are self-employed, the government’s pay equity principles cannot be used to lodge a pay equity claim. For this reason, the New Zealand College of Midwives lodged a claim in the High Court in 2015 against the crown, for discrimination on the basis of gender, citing inadequate remuneration for the responsibilities and nature of the role. This resulted in mediation, which set out that the Ministry of Health would work with the New Zealand College of Midwives to design a new funding model for LMC midwives which would be in line with the government’s pay equity principles.
• As employed midwives, working in maternity hospitals, mostly employed by DHBs.  As these midwives are employees, they are covered by the government’s pay equity principles. Therefore MERAS, the union which represents the majority of employed midwives, has lodged a pay equity claim with DHBNZ.

How many midwives are there in New Zealand

There are approximately 3,000 midwives with Annual practising certificates in New Zealand, around 1,500 work as employed midwives and around 1,100 as self-employed Lead Maternity Carers. All midwives regardless of where they work, have the same scope of practice and professional responsibilities.

What is the New Zealand College of Midwives?

The New Zealand College of Midwives is the professional organisation for midwifery. It represents all midwives, employed and self-employed.

What is MERAS?

The Midwifery Representation Advisory service (MERAS) is a union for employed midwives, which was established by the New Zealand College of Midwives to represent the interests of employed midwives and to negotiate a dedicated midwifery Mutli-Employer Collective Agreement  (MECA) on behalf of DHB employed midwives. The majority of employed midwives throughout New Zealand are members of MERAS.