WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Nurses in New Zealand plan to strike for 24 hours on Thursday over pay and working conditions, with hundreds of surgeries and medical appointments canceled, in the latest challenge for the center-left government over workers’ pay.

The job action — and a planned strike next month by elementary schoolteachers — poses a challenge to the center-left Labour government of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who came to power last October on a campaign platform of fairness and a better deal for ordinary New Zealanders.

New Zealand nurses last walked off the job 30 years ago.

The union representing them says nurses are propping up the public health system — which New Zealanders have access to at no cost — with “huge” amounts of unpaid overtime, with some nurses opting to move to Australia for better pay.

The planned strike would come days after workers for two government departments walked off the job on Monday. Elementary schoolteachers also are planning to strike next month for the first time in 24 years, also over pay.