KEY POINTS:
Prospects of resolving the junior hospital doctors' pay dispute any time soon look remote today as they stage a second two-day strike and the war of words with the District Health Boards becomes increasingly nasty.
About 2400 members of the Resident Doctor's Association (RDA), the union which represents the doctors, walked off the job at 7am and are not due back until 8am Friday morning.
The doctors have been fighting for a 30 per cent pay rise over a three-year period, and the DHBs have put forward a counter-offer of 4.25 per cent increase in July 2007 and July 2008.
The RDA yesterday retabled the lower of two claims they have made - still asking for about 10 per cent a year - and called for more talks today.
The DHBs described the offer, just hours before the strike was due to begin, as "pure theatre".
"Quite frankly if they were really serious about preventing the strike from happening this would have occurred an awful lot sooner," DHBs spokesman David Meates told Radio New Zealand.
By last night, hospitals around the country had contingency plans in place to enable them to cope during the strike, including the postponement of non-urgent surgery and the early discharge of patients where possible.
"For the RDA to suggest negotiations is really quite cynical as all of these thousands of patients have already had their care disrupted," Mr Meates said.
Resident Doctors Association (RDA) general secretary Deborah Powell said the DHBs were just finding excuses to resist bargaining.
"Unfortunately when you hear rhetoric from the DHBs you can be sure that it's trying to hide the truth."
Dr Powell said the settlement lay between the DHBs' offer of 4.25 per cent and the RDA's original claim of 10 per cent.
"Until we get to bargaining table and genuinely negotiate we won't find what that answer is."
"The DHBs are trying to cover up for the fact that they actually have a fixed, non-negotiable position. Unfortunately, no matter how hard you buff it, it ain't gonna shine."
It is likely that a mediator will meet advocates from both sides today, but not the full negotiating teams.
- NZPA
