KEY POINTS:
A "provocative" pay offer to new employees and non-union doctors could lead to more industrial action by junior doctors, their union leader has warned.
Junior doctors and the district health boards (DHBs) have been involved in a long-running dispute over pay.
More than 2000 junior doctors walked off the job in May, over their claim for a 10 per cent pay increase each year for the next three years.
But the DHBs have so far not budged from a 4.25 per cent increase for last year and this year.
However, the DHBS announced yesterday that non-union and new employees would be offered pay rises of just over 8.5 per cent for one year.
Junior doctors' union national secretary Deborah Powell said last night that DHBs were inviting junior doctors to resign to get the pay rise and abandon the multi-employer collective agreement.
The action as "very provocative" and increased the likelihood of a resumption of strikes, she told The New Zealand Herald.
The union's national executive meets today to consider further strikes.
One of the key issues in dispute has been the DHBs' claim their offer to the doctors is "in line with" the collective agreement offered to the senior doctors.
The junior doctors' union, the Resident Doctors Association (RDA), challenged that statement, and demanded pay details to back the claim, which the DHBs refused to deliver, on the basis it was confidential.
The RDA took the claim to the Employment Relations Authority (ERA). The DHBs said if they had to provide the information, they would refer it first to an independent reviewer.
The ERA yesterday ordered the DHBs to give the information to an independent reviewer, who could then decide how the information should be shared.
The ERA also found the DHBs had breached their good faith obligations by not providing requested information for the purposes of bargaining.
Ms Powell said the ruling illustrated what the union had been up against during negotiations.
"We have been negotiating with a party that is willing to make bold statements while knowingly withholding information that could substantiate that claim.
"We have all been left wondering what have they got to hide."
Dr Powell said DHBs based their "whole campaign" around the assertion junior doctors were offered the same benefits as senior doctors.
"We asked on what basis? Despite this request, which is our right to ask, DHBs refused to provide the information. Rightfully the Employment Relations Authority has asked them to front up with it."
The DHBs now had 21 days to comply with the order, or appeal the ruling.
DHBs spokesman David Meates said the boards were reading the ERA's determination and would not comment further until they had time to consider the ruling.
He said the findings would not change the offer, or the amount of funding available for settlement with the doctors.
"The real issue is that we have a pay claim of just under 30 per cent."
- NZPA
