Morning strike action at Radio NZ

Morning Report hosts Geoff Robinson (pictured) and Sean Plunkett stayed off the air today. File picture / Mark Mitchell

Industrial action stopped National Radio's Morning Report from going to air this morning.

Radio New Zealand was forced to relay BBC programmes from 5am to 9am after Morning Report staff stayed away.

The same happened on Friday afternoon, when about 180 RNZ staff walked off the job during a stopwork meeting at the Public Service Association (PSA) building in Wellington, where a vote was passed to reject the state broadcaster's 3 per cent pay rise offer.

That action prevented afternoon current affairs programme Checkpoint from going to air.

Members of the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) and the PSA are seeking a 5 per cent pay rise.

Morning Report's regular presenters Sean Plunkett and Geoff Robinson were both union members, the EPMU said.

About 30 staff picketed outside RNZ's central Wellington offices this morning.

EPMU spokeswoman Rosalie Webster said the two unions had given RNZ no notice of today's strike action, however an RNZ spokesman told NZPA the broadcaster had been aware of it last night.

Ms Webster said it was hoped the strike action would lead to further talks with RNZ management.

The action included journalists, producers, technicians, librarians and other workers.

The EPMU has claimed RNZ has "serious problems" attracting and retaining staff, especially senior people, and turnover is high because people can get jobs with more money and better hours elsewhere.

Two years ago, the union had settled an agreement with a 3 per cent pay rise in the first year and a 2 per cent pay rise in the second year, and an "explicit" agreement that pay scales at RNZ would be addressed, Ms Webster said.

However, that work had not been finished, and the workers were fast losing patience, she said.

PSA assistant secretary Jeff Osborne said staff also wanted a one-week increase to annual leave entitlement.

Members felt a responsibility to provide high quality and impartial general election coverage but that would be "severely compromised" if it became necessary to undertake industrial action, he said.

- NZPA