KEY POINTS:
The largest lockout in the public hospital system entered its second day today.
Nearly 800 hospital cleaners, kitchen workers and orderlies employed by Spotless were locked out of 13 hospitals from Invercargill to Northland from midnight Wednesday after deciding to take strike action.
The workers planned to stop work from 7am today for 55 minutes of every hour, 24 hours a day in support of their pay claim.
But the lockout pre-empted any strike action.
Service and Food Workers' Union (SFWU) spokesman Alistair Duncan said today locked-out cleaners, kitchen workers and orderlies from North Shore, Waitakere and Middlemore Hospitals would picket at Spotless' head office in Penrose, Auckland today.
SFWU northern regional secretary Jill Ovens said Spotless managers and a skeleton casual staff struggled to get patient meals out yesterday.
"At Middlemore Hospital, breakfasts were still going out at 11am."
Ms Ovens said union members arrived at work and found they were locked out.
"They were really angry that Spotless is blocking the $16 million pay rise that will see a $14.25 minimum hourly rate for hospital service workers."
District Health Boards across the country and three other contractors (ISS, OCS and Compass) had accepted the new pay scale, but Spotless was holding out on what is the most significant pay movement in decades for low-paid workers, the SFWU said in a statement.
Yesterday Invercargill Mayor Tim Shadbolt and Labour MP Lesley Soper were escorted by police from Invercargill Hospital grounds today as they joined a picket line of locked out hospital service workers.
Ms Soper said that she and Mr Shadbolt attended the protest in support of the workers, but they left when they were asked to by the police and District Health Board (DHB) management.
"There were no problems," she said.
The affected hospitals are Invercargill, Palmerston North, Hastings, Wanganui, Tauranga, Rotorua, North Shore, Waitakere, Middlemore, North Shore, Waitakere, Whangarei and Northland.
- NZPA
