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A proposal to outlaw industrial action that disrupts essential health services will be considered by a district health board today as 250 radiographers walk off the job for up to 10 days.
Negotiations between health worker representatives and several district health boards broke down last night and the radiographers will strike from this afternoon.
Staff of the Lakes (Rotorua), Bay of Plenty, Hutt Valley, Otago and Southland boards plan to stop work for 10 days. Canterbury will be affected for nine days and Tairawhiti for five days.
The Canterbury District Health Board will vote today on a proposal by member Alister James to seek a law change making public health strikes and lockouts illegal.
Mr James will seek his board's support for an approach to Government ministers Pete Hodgson and Ruth Dyson "seeking legislative changes ... to ensure that strikes and lockouts are unlawful in ... hospital services and including other services, such as the New Zealand Blood Service, that provide essential services to hospitals".
The Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, representing senior doctors, said the proposal was draconian and an over-reaction by the health board.
"When we have strike action, we can't just look at the body taking the action," said executive director Ian Powell.
"It always takes two to tango. District health boards should be looking more at their own conduct."
Mr Hodgson, the Health Minister, said he was comfortable with industrial relations legislation as it was.
"We believe that a right to strike, coupled with a requirement to ensure life-preserving services, is a way to maintain balance in a modern healthcare sector."
Mr James said that industrial action had become almost a weekly event and was affecting the ability of health boards to meet non-urgent surgery targets.
"This climate of conflict within our hospitals cannot be allowed to continue if we are to deliver the level of hospital services expected of us by our public and by Government."
He said health workers should be treated the same as police, who are forbidden to strike.
"I suggest that frontline workers providing an essential public service in our hospitals are in the same situation as police of putting the health and safety of our public at risk."
Negotiations between the health boards and radiographers have been dragging on for eight months, during which workers have three times called strike action.
Last month, radiographers thought they had reached an agreement but said the boards' chief executives vetoed the settlement at the last minute. But the boards said no settlement was reached and the parties were still "significantly apart".
The radiographers are seeking parity in pay and conditions with about 1000 colleagues from the other district health board areas.
What they want
* About 250 radiographers will walk off the job for up to 10 days.
* They are seeking parity in pay and conditions with about 1000 colleagues from other regions.
* Negotiations have been dragging on for eight months.
- Additional reporting NZPA
