Last-minute offer spurned

A 24-hour strike by 10,000 hospital workers will go ahead after a last-minute offer by health board employers was rejected.

The strike, planned from midnight tomorrow by 10,000 hospital workers and Public Service Association (PSA) members, will go ahead after an offer by district health boards yesterday afternoon was rejected by the union.

‘‘We made it clear to the employers that if an offer was made that honoured the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) report, we would recommend it to our members. Yet what we have received today is a kick in the guts,’’ PSA organiser Will Matthews said.

‘‘To blatantly disregard the ERA facilitators’ recommendations is not only a moral failing but an act of bad faith.’’

It follows more than 18 months of negotiations between the parties for a new collective agreement for allied health workers. Hospital workers under the allied health multi-employer agreement are from 75 occupations, including laboratory technicians, anaesthetic technicians, oral health therapists, alcohol and drug clinicians, and sterile sciences technicians. It does not include doctors, nurses and midwives.

ERA recommendations have been confidential between the negotiating teams but yesterday the PSA formally requested agreement from the health boards to share them with members.

Matthews said yesterday that the union’s request had been refused by the health boards. He said the union had lost faith in the Ministry of Health and asked for negotiations to be handed over to Health NZ and the interim agency.

‘‘The Ministry of Health has bungled every opportunity to bring workers a decent offer and, as a result, 10,000 health workers are going on strike. Without a guarantee of fair pay, allied health workers will again vote on sustained strike action through June and beyond the

Will Matthews Union organiser

establishment of the new Health NZ.’’

Hundreds of operations and appointments have been cancelled in Canterbury ahead of the planned strike – including cancer surgeries – with similar levels of disruption likely nationwide.

This week, the allied health workers started limited industrial action, working to rule and taking all entitled breaks from May 9. There were options to increase the measures, such as a ban on overtime, Matthews said.

Steve Grant, a sterile sciences technician, said he had been working for a health board for 12 years and was now paid $25.40 an hour, compared with the $27 an hour paid to shift supervisors at KFC.

He worked a second job, doing security in a bar to get by, and the hourly rate for that job was more than for his job at the health board, he said.

His health board was budgeted to have 23 staff in his team. There were 13 staff in the team now, including six trainees with a year’s experience or less.

Health boards spokesperson Keriana Brooking, who is also chief executive of Hawke’s Bay DHB, said earlier this week the health boards were reviewing recommendations made by the Employment Relations Authority ‘‘with urgency and hope to finalise a formal offer of settlement for PSA members to consider as soon as possible’’. ‘‘DHBs still hope to prevent further action and that the offer being finalised now will result in the lifting of the strike action.’’

The health boards have been approached for comment following their most recent offer in the dispute.

‘‘The Ministry of Health has bungled every opportunity to bring workers a decent offer.’’