KEY POINTS:
Hundreds of cleaners and food workers in public hospitals plan to walk off the job for 24 hours tomorrow after their employers failed to pay them a negotiated wage increase.
The workers and Spotless agreed to a base wage rate of $14.25 an hour nine months ago, but Spotless has yet to pay out the increase, the Service and Food Workers Union (SFWU) said.
SFWU industrial coordinator Shane Vugler said today the union wanted Spotless to be kicked out of the health sector.
"SFWU is seeking urgent meetings with the district health boards (DHBs) to discuss whether it is still appropriate that private companies profit from public health by contract labour.
"Spotless is the largest provider but with 40 per cent of DHBs directly employing staff we say there is no place for private profiteers," he said.
Australian-owned Spotless said last week it would pay the money - after it received agreed funding from the DHBs.
Spotless, which has contracts in 18 hospitals and employs over 800 cleaners, food workers and orderlies, is the largest cleaning contractor in the health sector.
Spotless workers affected are employed at 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.
- NZPA
