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A proposed pay deal between the senior doctors' union and district health boards includes the establishment of a commission to look at the international competitiveness of New Zealand doctors' employment.
Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS) executive director Ian Powell said the commission would look ahead to the competitiveness of the terms and conditions for senior doctors compared with the private sector and internationally.
The commission would have a "reasonable standing" and would involve representatives from health boards, the specialists and the Ministry of Health.
Mr Powell said it would be similar to commissions established for the fire service and secondary teachers, but he believed it would be the first to conduct international comparisons.
The breakthrough in the nearly two-year deadlock with health boards over senior doctors' pay follows the intervention of Health Minister David Cunliffe.
The union said it would not release details of the proposed settlement until members received them next week but the ASMS said it would recommend that the settlement be accepted.
Mr Powell said the national executive would probably make a final decision at a meeting in early May.
After Mr Cunliffe's intervention, senior doctors' union representatives held a series of talks with boards and the Ministry of Health, including an "all-night" meeting on March 5 involving the Health Minister.
The board, ASMS and Mr Cunliffe met again yesterday.
Mr Powell said the ASMS had taken a "pragmatic" approach and did not believe further negotiations or industrial action would get its members any further.
The proposed deal comes at the end of drawn-out negotiations that included a strike ballot which would have seen up to 2800 senior doctors walk off the job next month.
The DHB and ASMS have long argued about how much the specialists are paid, with the DHBs saying a "typical senior doctor" earns close to $200,000 a year.
The union says the true figure is more like $150,000.
Although the talks started off being about pay, they became more about recruitment and retention as time wore on.
- NZPA
