11,500 health workers locked in for mega strike, with more to follow

Thursday, 2 October 2025

The unions representing nurses and teachers argue the Coalition's legislation breached the right to fair legal process due to the lack of public consultation.

A group of more than 11,000 health workers are the first to commit to a massive coordinated strike being planned by public sector unions.

The Public Service Association (PSA) has confirmed its allied health workers would strike on October 23. Other workforces, including nurses and teachers, were also voting on whether to strike that day.

The Government is inundated with unhappy front line workers as pay negotiations drag on following two consecutive tight budgets, which have limited money for “cost pressures” to fund pay rises.

On Wednesday, the Professional Fire Fighters Union announced its fire fighters would also strike this month. They announced a one-hour “full strike” for October 13, rather than joining the October 23 coordinated industrial action.

As well as the 11,500 health workers who were part of the PSA, three other unions were also planning strikes for October 23. They included the two teachers unions, and the NZ Nurses Organisation.

PSA national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons said, if all of those tens of thousands of nurses and teachers joined together, it would be “one of the largest strikes in New Zealand history”.

Allied Health workers have voted to strike.

The four unions represented more than 100,000 workers combined. The NZNO had 62,000 members, the Post Primary Teachers Association (PPTA) represented more than 25,000 secondary teachers, and there were more than 50,000 educators in the NZEI.

Fitzsimons said the strike of allied health workers would impact dozens of roles across the health sector, including technicians, in-home support workers, social workers and therapists, pharmacists and educators.

“These are critical health workers who see first-hand how the health system is failing New Zealanders every day - they want to see the Government fund health services properly,” she said.

She said they had been offered a 2% pay rise, followed by a 1.5% increase over 30 months.

“This is well below inflation and means workers would be taking an effective pay cut. There are simply not enough health workers to provide the level of care New Zealanders need, and recruitment is frustratingly slow,” she said.

Public Service Commissioner Sir Brian Roche said he was “disappointed” the unions were planning more strikes.

“When public servants go on strike it has a significant impact on the New Zealanders they are meant to be serving.

“I respect their right to strike, but it should be a last resort,” he said.

Public Service Commissioner Sir Brian Roche is leading pay negotiations with teachers.

Roche and the Public Service Commission have taken over negotiations for the primary and secondary teachers, but Te Whatu Ora was remained in charge of negotiations with health workers.

Health Minister Simeon Brown has repeatedly criticised striking health workers, accusing them of playing “politics” and “hurting patients”.

Other work forces have also walked off the job in recent months, including specialist doctors from the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS) and public servants at ACC.