KEY POINTS:
More than 800 hospital workers will stage a 24-hour strike in two weeks, potentially reducing hospital services throughout the country.
The Spotless Services staff, about 500 of them in Auckland, include cleaners, kitchen workers and orderlies. They will walk off the job at 6am on April 2 to protest at what they say is the company's failure to implement a $3-an-hour pay rise agreed nine months ago.
The strike means services essential in running a hospital will not be provided, Service and Food Workers Union industrial co-ordinator Shane Vugler told the Herald last night.
"Effectively, there is not going to be any cleaning done. Hospitals are highly contagious environments, so there could be health risks."
Lack of hospital food and orderly services would also create major problems at the affected hospitals, Mr Vugler said.
Middlemore Hospital is one of three major hospitals in Auckland set to be affected by the strikes, yet chief operating officer Dr Ron Dunham was informed of the planned action only by the Herald last night.
He said he was "very concerned" by the development: "We can't afford to have this group of workers on strike. They are essential workers for hospitals. We rely on them totally."
He was disappointed not to have been told the news earlier, would be calling Spotless Services first thing this morning and would begin contingency planning immediately, he said.
If the strike did go ahead, the hospital would do what was necessary to ensure services remained available.
The strike action was ratified "almost unanimously" in nationwide meetings last week, and followed the inability of Spotless Services to pay their staff new rates agreed nine months ago, Mr Vugler said.
The new rates would allow workers a base rate of $14.25 an hour - $3 an hour more than the current rate. Penal rates and overtime allowances were also to be improved.
But he said the Service and Food Workers Union was called by Spotless Services to a meeting late last month and told the money would not be available.
Spotless Services told the union that district health boards were not stumping up with the money needed to increase the workers' pay, Mr Vugler said.
"The district health boards have effectively said, 'It's not our problem.' But they signed a memo of understanding that they would fund those agreed base rates. They received significant extra funding from the Government to address this settlement," he said.
Dr Dunham said the Counties Manukau District Health Board was aware of the pay increases, but had no idea there were funding issues for those new rates.
Spotless Services could not be reached for comment last night.
PLAN OF ACTION
Which workers will strike?
More than 800 hospital cleaners, orderlies and food workers.
Why?
Nine months ago they settled wage negotiations with employer Spotless Services. The new wage rises have yet to arrive.
Which hospitals will be affected?
Kaitaia Hospital, Bay of Islands Hospital, Whangarei Hospital, North Shore Hospital, Waitakere Hospital, Middlemore Hospital, Manukau Superclinic, Pukekohe Hospital, Franklin Hospital, Tauranga Hospital, Rotorua Hospital, Gisborne Hospital, Palmerston North Hospital, Wanganui Hospital, Hawkes Bay Hospital, Wairarapa Hospital, Timaru Hospital and Kew (Southland) Hospital.
What will happen to hospitals during the strike?
Contingency planning will begin today, and hospitals will work to maintain most services.
