Doctors and DHBs in race against time

There could be significant consequences if the junior doctors aren’t able to swiftly heal the rift with their district health board employers, with more mediation, strikes, facilitation or even lockouts among the possible levers.

Increasing acrimony between the boards and members of the New Zealand Registered Doctors’ Association (NZRDA) has seen discussions grind to a halt with doctors already embarking on the first of two nationwide strikes.

The race is now on to resolve their competing opinions over what should be included in the next Multi-Employer Collective Agreement (Meca) before February 28.

That’s because the most recent Meca expired in February last year, but its terms remain in place for a year to allow for fresh negotiations before it dissolves altogether.

The previous Meca included the safer rosters provision the NZRDA fought for in 2016, but health boards have chosen to claw back this clause in its latest proposal.

If a new Meca isn’t signed before March 1, the terms of it ‘‘will cease to apply’’ and NZRDA members would be governed by an individual employment agreement, M inter Ellison Rudd Watts partner and employment and public law specialist Megan Richards said.

The terms of that individual agreement, at least at the outset, will be the same as the Meca, but they can be varied by agreement with individual employees.

NZRDA spokesman Allan Drew foresaw problems when doctors needed to move to another employer, which would be a scenario most junior doctors, also known as Registered Medical Officers, would face ‘‘within the next six to 12 months’’.

He believed health boards would look to impose the terms of the collective agreement it has in place with the smaller Specialty Trainees of New Zealand (Stonz) union.

Crucially, this agreement included the boards’ preferred 12-day rostering system – the same rostering system the NZRDA is fighting against.

‘‘This is a vastly inferior agreement – the Stonz people have given up a myriad of terms and conditions in order to work 12 days in a row,’’ Drew said.

Mediation has so far failed to be a circuit-breaker to the standoff but further mediation and strikes could take place along with facilitation – a process used in the recent nurses’ collective agreement negotiations.

In the meantime, the DHBs and the NZRDA have re-asserted their commitment to bargaining in good faith and finding a resolution.