KEY POINTS:
More than 800 workers at 12 hospitals will strike next Wednesday even though they agreed a pay rise with employer Spotless Services Ltd last July.
Spotless is refusing to pay the money because of a dispute over funding with district health boards.
"It is totally unacceptable that low-paid workers in our public hospitals are being forced to lose income and put patient safety at risk because Spotless and the DHBs can't do simple arithmetic," said Service and Food Workers Union (SFWU) industrial co-ordinator Shane Vugler.
Mediation between Spotless and SFWU to avoid strike action failed yesterday, the union said. As a result more than 800 workers will strike for 24 hours on April 2.
The hospitals affected are Kaitaia Hospital, Bay of Islands Hospital (Kawakawa), Whangarei Hospital, North Shore Hospital, Waitakere Hospital, Middlemore Hospital, Manukau Superclinic, Pukekohe Hospital, Franklin Hospital (Waiuku), Tauranga Hospital, Rotorua Hospital, Gisborne Hospital, Palmerston North Hospital, Wanganui Hospital, Hawke's Bay Hospital, Southland Hospital, Wairarapa Hospital, and Timaru Hospital.
Last year the company locked out workers for nine days but an agreement was reached that gave workers a minimum starting rate of $14.25 an hour.
The other three big cleaning contractors - all European-based, ISS, OCS and Compass - and all district health boards which employed their own service workers, agreed to the same starting rate in principle.
- NZPA
