Resident doctors threaten pay-row action

Ian Powell. Photo / Supplied

Resident doctors have made their first overt threat of industrial action in their current pay dispute with district health boards after talks yesterday made "minimal progress".

Any strikes by house officers and registrars would be extremely disruptive to health services, especially if they occurred during the current campaign of industrial action by hospital laboratory workers and radiographers.

The unions representing these health workers are all linked through their use of the same advocacy firm, Contract Negotiation Services.

Further talks are scheduled today between the Resident Doctors' Association and representatives of the 20 DHBs, but the union is upset by the radical nature of the boards' demands.

The two parties' fragile relationship was shaken yesterday by news of the senior doctors' union winning a 2 per cent pay rise from next January.

The senior doctors and the health boards say this deal is similar to the pay rise accepted by nurses and many other DHB staff.

But rather than renewing their collective agreement - the usual process - the senior doctors have agreed to a "variation", what their executive director, Ian Powell, calls a "holding pattern" timed to coincide with the Government's Budget next year.

The union and the DHBs will develop a "business case", a term DHBs normally use when seeking Government funding approval for new services or buildings.

Resident Doctors' Association president Curtis Walker said his union had offered to roll over its collective agreement with a pay rise of "only 1 per cent", to allow continued discussion without the pressure that arises from an expired agreement.

But late last night, DHB spokeswoman Karen Roach disputed this, saying the association had never made a formal offer of a rollover and continued to claim increases of more than 20 per cent in base pay rates.

The DHBs, while offering pay rises of 2 to 4 per cent, have said the status quo is not an option for the conditions in the collective agreement; they view the contract as an impediment to the efficient running of hospitals and say it gives the union too much power.

Dr Curtis was surprised by the senior doctors' deal and indicated it had raised the stakes. "We have offered to settle for less than that and yet they are refusing to extend the same what they call 'innovative holding pattern' to us. We suggested it months ago.

"Unless they were to offer that kind of arrangement to us ... industrial action is on the cards."