KEY POINTS:
Hospital service workers are next in the queue to hit district health boards with strike action.
Radiographers at seven DHBs around the country returned to work last week after a 10-day strike, and have refused to rule out further industrial action.
Lab workers walked off the job for a week today after pay talks broke down.
The Service and Food Workers Union, which represents nearly 3000 support workers in public hospitals, has now given notice to DHBs of national strike action on December 13.
The union has been negotiating with the boards and contract companies who provide services in public hospitals since July.
It is seeking a single national multi-employer agreement (Meca), covering hospital cleaners, kitchen and food workers, orderlies and home aides.
"These workers are amongst the lowest paid workers in New Zealand," said union advocate Shane Vugler.
"A single national agreement is the only way to address the low pay and exploitation in the sector."
Mr Vugler said hospital service workers were worse off than in 1990 when they had a margin of 45 per cent above the minimum wage.
That margin had now vanished, he said, with many service workers paid the minimum wage or close to the minimum wage of $10.25 an hour.
"A national Meca is the only way to achieve fair and consistent pay rates across the country and maintain fair pay in years to come."
Employers, who had negotiated Mecas with doctors, nurses and allied health staff, had given no genuine reason for refusing to negotiate a Meca with service workers, Mr Vugler said.
"The action of the DHBs is a state sector equivalent of the recent actions of supermarket giant Progressive in the private sector.
"A fair pay increase and a Meca are both essential outcomes of the negotiation, because a single agreement is the only way to maintain any pay increase."
Mr Vugler said the refusal by DHBs to negotiate a Meca put them in conflict with their legal obligations under the Employment Relations Act.
The DHBs were "disappointed" by the planned strike action, given that more talks were scheduled for next week, said spokesman Craig Climo.
"The union's claim is based on a national pay deal, or Meca, covering all service workers in all DHBs as well as their contractors."
The boards had tried to explore other ways of meeting the union's concerns and the planned action was "unfortunate", he said.
"If the last few months have shown unions anything, it's that DHBs will not bow to industrial pressure - if anything it will harden our resolve."
- NZPA
