Striking guards seek money from public

Striking security guards at Middlemore Hospital will stop passing drivers and ask for a donation today as part of action to support their pay claim.

The 20 security guards, who are members of the Service and Food Workers Union, want a 5 per cent pay increase but have been offered 2.5 per cent and another 1 per cent if they agree to 12-hour shifts.

Union organiser Jill Ovens said Middlemore had one of the highest rates of violence against clinical staff in the country and the guards played a vital role in calming and restraining violent patients and angry relatives.

Ms Ovens said the guards, who did not receive penal rates for working at night or weekends, were paid $14.44 an hour and the 5 per cent increase equated to an extra 72c an hour.

Union delegate Temu Faireka said the pay offer by the Counties Manukau District Health Board, which would be backdated to November last year, came with a "sting in its tail".

"If we agree to 12-hour shifts, we don't get any overtime, so 1 per cent in no way compensates for that," he said.

The guards would be outside the hospital today stopping pedestrians and passing drivers to ask for a donation.

Sam Bartrum, general manager human resources for the health board, said the 5 per cent claim was outside the organisation's "business parameters" and would create expectations among other hospital workers for a similar pay increase.

Management would meet with union delegates next week for further mediation.

Mr Bartrum said management respected the guards' right to strike but hoped they would not be harassing people if they asked for a donation.

Dot McKeen, acute care service manager, said clinical staff in the hospital's emergency department - the biggest in Australasia - were verbally abused every day by people who did not like having to wait or who had been taking drugs or drinking alcohol.