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Nine laboratory workers at Middlemore Hospital were suspended yesterday for refusing to carry out some of their duties.
The suspensions follow the same move against seven members of the Medical Laboratory Workers Union at the West Coast District Health Board on Monday.
Yesterday's suspensions are the latest development in a long-running industrial dispute between the union and health boards.
The union is taking legal advice on the suspension notices.
The Medical Association, concerned about the effects of health strikes, weighed into the row yesterday. It demanded Health Minister Pete Hodgson intervene in health-sector pay disputes for the benefit of patients and that funding be increased for health boards so they could lift health workers' pay and improve staff retention.
But the minister's office said the Government had increased health board funding significantly and Mr Hodgson was sticking with the long-established policy of staying out of the health sector's industrial disputes.
The suspensions at the Middlemore lab, where 98 per cent of the more than 100 staff are union members, ranged from two hours to four days.
Hospital chief operating officer Ron Dunham said the laboratory was providing a nearly complete service most of the time and patients would not notice the action, which was not a safety issue.
The Middlemore action follows a series of strikes since December by 1200 members of the union in pursuit of improved pay and conditions at 15 district health boards and the Blood Service.
