Are we about lose more of our nursing workforce to Australia?

The Nurses Organisation has rejected another DHB pay offer, saying it fails to recognise the tremendous workload and highly pressurised working conditions nurses endure.

Nurses' pay goes up 1.38 percent annually, and their union says the latest pay-offer was little more than that.

The NZNO says discussions among the workforce have turned to moving to Australia.

Lead advocate and NZNO industrial adviser David Wait told Heather du Plessis-Allan says that the pay needs to be significantly higher to make the job attractive.

"We've got workforce that is ageing and we have a nursing shortage, and we're not training enough nurses to replace the ones that are retiring, let alone build for the future."

He says that the pay rate in Australia can be as much as 20 percent higher than in New Zealand.

"We know there is a bit of a backlog of people who probably would have gone there anyway but didn't because of Covid."

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