Pay freeze ‘a kick in the teeth’
A public sector pay freeze is a ‘‘kick in the teeth’’ for health workers and sends the message they’re not valued, a specialists’ organisation says.
Another health group says it could compromise patient care, as there are already shortages and it may not be possible to replace staffers lured to the private sector.
On Wednesday, the Government announced a three-year pay freeze for public servants who earn more than $100,000.
Those on $60,000 or more will only be offered pay increases under select circumstances.
That’s a kick in the teeth to senior doctors, said a statement from the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists Toi Mata Hauora.
‘‘On one hand the Government has been showering doctors and medical professionals with bouquets for their response to Covid, and on the other it turns around and swings a very heavy brickbat. It doesn’t make sense,’’ executive director Sarah Dalton said.
In real terms, the pay freeze means salaries will go backwards about 2 per cent a year, she said.
It comes when senior doctors and dentists face serious staffing shortages, cramped and outdated facilities, and steady increases in acute patient demand.
Now the trans-Tasman bubble is open, the estimated 60 per cent pay gap might entice highly trained specialists across the ditch.
‘‘I think we all know that as a country we can’t afford for that to happen,’’ Dalton said.
The freeze could also compromise clinical leadership and support as the Government ushers in its health reforms.
It was disappointing to see the finance minister ‘‘abandoning the Government’s wellbeing agenda in favour of an austerity programme’’, the statement said.
When announcing the freeze, Minister for the Public Service Chris Hipkins said the major rationale was the Government’s overall financial position and ‘‘the need to demonstrate fiscal responsibility as we continue to need to step our way out of Covid-19’’.
‘‘It’s important that the public service continues to show moderation and restraint when sectors in the wider economy are still experiencing the negative effects of Covid-19,’’ he said.
Finance Minister Grant Robertson said it was necessary to keep a lid on public debt, which skyrocketed during Covid-19 with expensive measures like the wage subsidy.
Under the freeze, those earning between $60,000 and $100,000 will only be eligible for a pay rise if there is serious recruitment pressure in their area.
It was about prioritising spending, Hipkins said.
‘‘This will also help protect jobs by taking financial pressure off the public wage bill.’’
The move could worsen Aotearoa’s most critical health shortages – for example radiation therapists, physicists, perfusionists, psychologists and laboratory scientists, said APEX, the union that represents them.
‘‘Is the Government, for example, content to watch cancer wait lists for radiation therapy grow whilst we suffer ongoing shortages of radiation therapists due to inadequate pay? Or for mental health patients waiting to see a clinical psychologist?’’ a statement said.
It would be hard to resist ‘‘constantly increasing remuneration’’ in the private sector, and ‘‘people who leave are all but irreplaceable in the current environment’’, APEX national secretary Dr Deborah Powell said.
She asked why the health sector should help ease government debt ‘‘occasioned by paying wage subsidies to private sector employers during Covid’’.
Health workers and laboratory staffers in particular rose to the challenge of Covid and got a pay freeze in return, she said.
The Government expressed gratitude but was failing to value them in real terms, she said.
The freeze ‘‘makes a mockery of the bargaining processes’’, she said.
Though the Government would be concerned about wages when there was financial pressure on the country due to Covid-19, it was not an excuse for a one-size-fits-all pay restraint system, the statement said.
Others to criticise the pay freeze included the Public Service Association and the Police Association.