KEY POINTS:
More industrial action is likely at hospitals today as cleaners, kitchen, orderly and security staff will stop work to vote on what could be one of the largest strike actions in public hospitals.
The Service and Food Workers Union said 2500 of its members are expected to reject a pay offer on Sunday from district health boards and major contractors.
Union spokesman Alastair Duncan said it had taken a year of negotiation, protest, pickets and legal action to get employers to the point of a first offer.
He said the health boards offered a 2.1 per cent average pay increase but refused to enter into a single national collective to lock-in the contractors.
Four major contractors, Spotless Services, OCS, ISS, and Compass employ two thirds of the affected workers.
Meanwhile, senior doctors are to discuss possible strike action at a series of stopwork meetings to be held from next month.
However, the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists executive director, Ian Powell, said a decent pay offer from the 21 boards which employ the doctors could still prevent industrial action.
The association represents about 2500 senior doctors, dentists and surgeons.
Medical radiation technologists, laboratory workers and radiographers are other health workers with disputes.
- NZPA
