Guides / Glossary
The terms the agreements, the Council and the agencies all use, defined plainly.
| RMO | Resident Medical Officer — house officers and registrars, before vocational registration. Paid under the NZRDA or STONZ agreement. |
| SMO | Senior Medical Officer — specialists and medical officers. Paid under the ASMS agreement. |
| MOSS | Medical Officer Special Scale — the common name for a senior doctor without vocational registration, paid on the 14-step medical officer scale. |
| PGY | Post-Graduate Year — years since graduation. PGY1 is the intern year. |
| Run | A specific roster position with its own expected hours, described in a run description held by the district. |
| Run category | A–F, set by a run's expected average weekly hours. A column of the salary grid. Guide. |
| Step / Year | Your row on the salary grid, advancing on service. Guide. |
| Higher Qualification Increment | An extra step for passing Part I exams or equivalent — the 'exam step'. |
| Additional duties | Voluntary extra shifts, paid hourly by grade and time of day on top of salary. Also the floor for locum shifts. |
| GPEP | General Practice Education Programme — GP training; year 1 is on a flat salary band, not the grid. |
| NZRDA | New Zealand Resident Doctors' Association — one of the two unions covering RMOs. |
| STONZ | Specialty Trainees of New Zealand — the other union covering RMOs. |
| ASMS | Association of Salaried Medical Specialists — the senior doctors' union. |
| SECA / MECA / CA | Single-employer, multi-employer, or plain collective agreement. Since Health NZ replaced the district health boards there is one employer, so the current documents are SECAs or CAs. |
| Health New Zealand / Te Whatu Ora | The single national public-hospital employer since the 2022 reforms. No per-district agreements any more — but some district-specific schedules (availability allowance, parking) survive inside the national ones. |
| Vocational scope | The Medical Council's term for a specialty. Registration in one requires the prescribed Fellowship. All 36. |
| Job size | For senior doctors, the agreed average weekly hours. 40 is full time; pay is pro rata above or below. |
| Availability allowance | A senior doctor's on-call allowance, a percentage of base salary set by the former district's schedule. |
| CME | Continuing medical education — for senior doctors, 10 days' leave and $18,000 a year in expenses under the ASMS agreement. |