Hospital reviews its ban on rings

By ELIZABETH BINNING

Waikato Hospital has agreed to revisit its controversial ban on staff wearing rings but food workers are not confident it will change anything.

The hospital's new policy, which bans the wearing of any kind of jewellery, made headlines after staff said they would rather face disciplinary action than remove their wedding bands.

Despite overwhelming public support for the workers' cause, hospital spokeswoman Karen Bennett initially told the Herald there would be no change to the policy.

However yesterday, after a meeting with several workers and two union representatives, management agreed to revisit the issue.

Hospital support services manager Phil Minogue said management would look at other options for the policy, which was introduced to prevent jewellery catching on kitchen machinery and stop bacteria living under rings spreading to patients.

He said staff had also been asked to come up with alternative ways around the health and safety issue. The two parties will then discuss the options this week.

Staff spokeswoman Jenny Costello said staff had suggested wearing the wedding bands tapped down and under gloves so they would not be caught on machinery.

Mrs Costello said that suggestion was rejected at yesterday's meeting and there seemed to be little room for any real compromise on the ring ban.

"They won't reach a compromise with us," she said. "We asked if we could have our wedding rings taped and they said no they wouldn't look at that. They still say it's a health and safety issue.

"I don't think we are going to get very far. We will just have to see what happens now."

The meeting between the two parties is expected to take place on Friday.

No other hospital in the country bans its food workers from wearing a plain wedding band under gloves. Many catering companies and Heinz-Watties, one of the largest food manufacturers in the country, also allow staff to wear wedding bands as long as they are under gloves.