KEY POINTS:
Last minute talks are under way to try to prevent strikes and lockouts at hospitals up and down the country from midnight tonight.
The Service and Food Workers Union, representing about 3000 cleaners, orderlies and kitchen staff, had issued thousands of strike notices.
The workers are employed by 20 district health boards and four contracting companies - ISS, Compass, Spotless and OCS.
The contracting companies, which employ about two-thirds of the workers, responded to the strike threats with lockout notices.
Talks between the union and Health Boards were adjourned on Friday after the union presented an alternative proposal to the employers.
Because of today's public holiday they were not expected to resume until Thursday.
However, lead negotiator for the Health Boards, Craig Climo, said this morning talks were taking place and were going down to the wire.
He said the package currently on the table would see the lowest-paid workers getting the biggest rises.
Mr Climo said someone on $11.25 an hour now would get $12.50 on July 1, and about $14.50 at the end of the three-year lifespan of the deal.
Mr Climo said the gap between the boards and the union was getting smaller and that earlier in the week the union was asking for money the boards simply did not have.
Craig Climo said there was about $18 million in extra pay on the table over the next three years.
An ISS spokesman said the companies had been forced to respond to the union's strike notices with lockout notices.
He said the way union organisers had structured the strike action - which would allow workers to withdraw strike notices and resume work at an hour's notice - meant it would be impossible for the contractors to do their job.
Union spokesman Alistair Duncan said the strike was structured to enable workers to make a judgment call on whether they wished to perform certain tasks.
"The cleaners may decide, 'Well we're not going to clean the CEO's office but we'll go and make sure the neo-natal unit is looking okay'," he said.
"Now they are all locked out and unable to go to work.
"We're talking about 2000 workers - that's like the waterfront lockout of 1951, except we're talking about our public hospitals."
The lockout notices were effective for up to 10 days, he said.
Meanwhile a Christchurch health group is offering to hold a summit to try to end the dispute.
Eleanor Carter of the pressure group 'Health Cuts Hurt'; has written to the DHBs and the unions offering to try to broker a deal.
She said patients were the helpless victims of health service disruption and the dispute had gone on long enough.
- NZPA / NEWSTALK ZB
