KEY POINTS:
Locked-out hospital service workers may be allowed back to work today and pay negotiations may be back on track with employer Spotless Services after strike notices were withdrawn.
About 800 Spotless staff have been locked out of 13 hospitals nationwide since Wednesday after the Service and Food Workers Union threatened a strike from Thursday morning.
The workers had planned to stop work from 7am for 55 minutes of every hour, 24 hours a day in support of their pay claim.
But the lockout pre-empted any strike.
Spotless said it would withdraw its lockout notices if the union stepped back from industrial action - something the union confirmed yesterday afternoon.
Spotless Healthcare general manager Mark Russell said his company wanted to return to the negotiating table to find a solution.
"As a starting point for negotiations, Spotless has committed to pay every current Spotless worker at least as much as what is being offered by the DHBs [district health boards] and agreed to auditing mechanisms to make sure it passes on every cent granted by DHBs.
"If the SFWU is still not happy with the outcome of bargaining, then it still has the right to strike. But at the moment we have a dispute that can be resolved through negotiation, we believe."
Union spokesman Alastair Duncan said it had offered to withdraw strike notices until 7am on Tuesday to enable the parties to meet over the weekend.
"We have asked Spotless to reciprocate and lift its lockout notices for the same time to allow us to attend mediation."
Mr Duncan said the union had not yet heard from Spotless about whether the notices had been lifted.
"We need to sit down and confirm that Spotless is ready to talk about a settlement and allow our members to return to the business of keeping our hospitals healthy."
- NZPA
