KEY POINTS:
Senior doctors say there is no truth to claims from employers that a "typical" doctor would get a $45,000 pay rise under a deal currently being negotiated.
They say district health boards (DHBs) are inflating a pay offer to them by focusing on those who work longer hours than the norm.
DHBs yesterday said they had offered a pay rise spread over four years that would amount to $45,000 for a "typical senior doctor".
"Our offer would see a typical senior doctor's total earnings move from $190,500 to $235,860. When you include training and reimbursement costs, this is a total average package of $243,060," said DHB lead negotiator Nigel Murray.
However, Association of Salaried Medical Specialists executive director Ian Powell said today the offer was misleading.
"The figure DHBs have come up with exaggerates average senior doctor income for a 40-hour week by around $50,000," Mr Powell said.
The DHBs had taken salaries from those who worked longer hours than their colleagues covering after-hours emergencies, shortages and absences, he said.
"Doctors consistently covering the workload of others, and working long hours are going to burn out and face exhaustion, so it is extremely misleading to add these extra payments up as part of an average weekly salary."
Mr Powell said senior doctors would accept the offer if it was based on reality.
Senior doctors continue with stopwork meetings today with specialists from Nelson-Marlborough District Health Board gathering in Nelson.
Dr Murray said today DHBs stood by their figures and insisted the salaries were a genuine representation of specialists working in the public system.
"These figures are not the highest earners and longest hours, they are average figures," he said.
"Once again, the DHBs would like to reiterate the offer that we have made many times across the bargaining table.
"If the union has concerns over the way we're costing and analysing either their time, or our offer or this information, then we would be very keen to have it done by a third party.
"They have consistently declined that."
Dr Murray said the DHBs wanted to "get past the rhetoric" and advance the negotiations.
- NZPA
