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WELLINGTON - The pay stoush between district health boards (DHBs) and radiation therapists was solved yesterday but more battles are on the horizon for the medical sector.
Radiation therapists cancelled planned strike action after reaching agreement on pay with their bosses but the negotiation process was testing for relations between DHB management and staff.
DHB spokesman Murray Georgel said the agreement was a breakthrough but past strikes had been costly for many patients who had treatment disrupted.
"The lesson from this is that meaningful negotiation is the way to achieve fair and reasonable settlements -- not industrial action," he said.
More than 2500 senior doctors have been in negotiations since last May for a national agreement that expired in June.
Association of Salaried Medical Specialists executive director Ian Powell, representing the doctors, said three days of mediation between the parties had been set for early next month.
Mr Powell said the doctors had been "fighting not to strike" but the whole process was testing.
He said DHBs seemed to be on an "adrenaline hype" at the moment.
Chief executives were used to getting their own way, but were on a level playing when it came to the collective agreement framework.
"I think chief executives really find it difficult to get their minds around that -- that simply by decreeing something -- it should happen.
"On a level playing field it doesn't work like that, both parties have the ability to say no -- including the workforce.
"But in their normal daily workings, senior managers don't have the ability to say no to a chief executive."
Radiographers, who do x-rays, service workers, laboratory workers and nurses are also in various stages of contract negotiations and some have been striking.
Nurses, who won a substantial settlement just over a year ago, have started negotiations to ensure the conditions they won are not eroded.
Junior doctors reached a settlement last November after a big stoush that included walking off the job in August.
"I think this is quite an extraordinary period," Mr Powell said. "It is being very detrimental in terms of undermining the workforce's confidence in the future direction of the system."
Mr Powell said he understood the Government's position on not getting involved in pay disputes but that the current situation should be a big cause of concern for the Health Ministry.
- NZPA
