KEY POINTS:
Further strikes by Spotless Services workers barely surviving on their minimum wage pay cheques will leave their struggling families suffering and their grocery bills slashed.
Speaking to the Weekend Herald yesterday, North Shore Hospital laundry worker and union delegate Sonia Paikea said her current $12 per hour wage left her family "just surviving, and that's it".
Despite working for the company for five years, her wage has remained on the national minimum level - only moving up from $11.25 per hour on Tuesday when the new national rate took effect.
Wednesday's one-day strike, of 800 Spotless Services cleaners, orderlies and kitchen workers from 18 hospitals around the country, would leave Mrs Paikea juggling which groceries to do without for the next two weeks, she said.
"You have to sort of look at what you used to buy. And then when you go on strike you have to say, 'well, we'll have to do without that for the next two weeks after the strike'."
Her children constantly asked her where her pay rise and allocated back pay was, and when the family would see it.
"And that's hard to hear as a mum. It's really hard."
Increases in grocery and petrol prices were keenly felt, she said. Yet the workers believed they had no choice but to strike.
Dropping from last year's elation of hearing their pay would rise $3 per hour, to still having none of that money 10 months later, had left workers miserable, quiet, but defiant, she said.
"It is hard, but we have all got to stick together as one. We're still just sitting here asking 'When are we going to get paid?' Where has our money gone to? What else can we say apart from that? We just have to bide our time. What else can we do?"
Wayne Johnson, an orderly at Middlemore Hospital for the past 15 years is paid $12.99 an hour. He said workers shouldn't have been put in a position where they had to strike.
"But we have to. If we do nothing, we're going to get nothing. We should have been paid - the people are not happy with the situation at all. And for the people with young families, it gets hard."
Workers could appreciate the financial confusion between Spotless Services and district health boards, he said. But while there was a $1.8 million gap between the two sides' positions, it seemed unnecessary to deny workers the $3 million currently available.
STRIKE BRINGS STRIFE
Many Spotless Services workers involved in Wednesday's strikes earn the minimum wage of $12 an hour - despite many serving the company for several years.
The Weekend Herald has compiled a list of typical weekly expenses, to indicate what impact the strike has had on workers' finances.
(We have not factored in KiwiSaver, Working for Families, insurance or irregular costs such as car repairs)Income: $480 gross ($12 an hour for 40 hours each week)
* Tax: $93.60 (@ 19.5 per cent)
* Net income: $386.40
Typical expenses:
* 40 litre tank of petrol: $71.20 (@ $1.78 per litre)
* Rent: $423 for a three-bedroom home (Average Auckland rent in January - figure from property agent Crockers)
* Typical grocery bill for a two-adult, two-child family: $150
* Typical weekly power, phone, water and internet bill: $40
* Total expenses: $684.50
That leaves a one-income family almost $300 short each week.
* Cost of one day's work lost to strike: $96 (before tax)
UNION LIKES ARBITRATION
Health sector industrial disputes could be dealt with better if a compulsory final offer arbitration model was adopted, a union leader said.
Arbitration is used for police industrial disputes, eliminating the risk of strike action and ensuring an essential service is not crippled.
Service and Food Workers Union industrial adviser Shane Vugler said striking was not the best option for his workers, and the union would support a shift in the public health sector to final offer arbitration.
Although union members made headlines when on strike, the lack of pay while picketing meant families, often under severe financial strain, were stretched even further, he said.
Unions also lacked the bargaining power of their employers, as not enough employees were union members, he said. That meant workers would potentially be better served by an independent arbitrator.
There is currently no provision for final offer arbitration under the Employment Relations Act, and the union had not officially debated such a change, he said.
He added moving to binding arbitration would mean unions like his could no longer use strike action during industrial disputes.
"But we have to be frank. We don't have too much bargaining power now. It nearly broke our people to be locked out for nine days [during last year's industrial dispute with Spotless Services]."
