MEDIA STATEMENT FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE,
Association of Salaried Medical Specialists

“EMPLOYERS’ FEDERATION PROPOSAL UNDEMOCRATIC”

“The Employers’ Federation proposal to exclude employees who earn more that $69,900 from the rights and protections of the new Employment Relations Bill is undemocratic,” said Mr Ian Powell, Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, today.

“This undemocratic discrimination would mean that senior doctors in public hospitals and elsewhere would be denied basic rights and protections that they desperately need. It would even make them worse off than they are now under
the current Employment Contracts Act.”

“Public hospitals like many other workplaces have to deal with numerous employment disputes and differences. Many of these effect and involve senior doctors who are entitled to the same protections and rights of other staff.”

“New Zealand competes in an international market for recruiting and retaining senior doctors. Our public hospitals would suffer serious recruitment and retention problems if senior doctors were to be denied the basic protections and rights that are available and standard in the countries that we have to compete against,” concluded Mr Powell.

Ian Powell
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

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