South Island hospital workers going on strike

PSA Media Release
November 18, 2009
For Immediate Use

South Island hospital workers going on strike

Health workers doing essential administrative work in South Island public hospitals are going on strike on Friday because most are being paid less than staff doing the same work in North Island hospitals.

The one-hour strike starts at 3.30pm on Friday (Nov 20) and involves more than 800 administration and clerical staff working for the South Island’s six district health boards. They are members of the Public Service Association.

“The workers going on strike do essential clerical work that enables doctors, nurses, radiologists and other clinical staff in hospitals to focus on treating patients,” says PSA assistant national secretary Warwick Jones.

“These clerical workers are classified as essential workers and as such were required to give two weeks’ notice of their industrial action.”

“They were due to start their action today (Nov 18) by taking their work breaks together but we’ve withdrawn notice of that action.”

“Instead they’ll strike for an hour on Friday to protest being paid less than staff doing the same work for district health boards in the North Island.”

“They’ve also served notice of further strikes next week unless there are significant steps towards addressing the gap between their pay and DHB staff doing the same work in the North Island,” says Warwick Jones.

Clerical staff working for North Island DHBs have a bottom pay rate of $30,500 while their South Island colleagues pay starts at $27,641 - just 78 cents an hour above the minimum wage.

“It’s unacceptable to pay workers less for doing the same work just because they live in the South Island,” says Warwick Jones.

“The government needs to acknowledge this discrimination and work with the DHBs to bridge this pay gap.”

“Eighty per cent of these South Island health workers are earning less than the $37,500 accommodation allowance the government is prepared to pay cabinet ministers on a base salary of $243,700.”

“The government needs to get its priorities right and work with DHBs to ensure that workers, essential to running South Island public hospitals, are fairly paid,” says Warwick Jones.

Administration and clerical workers do a range of jobs essential to the operation of hospitals.

• telephonists who are the first point of contact for people phoning a public hospital
• ward clerks who administer hospital wards
• medical record clerks who keep track of patients’ medical records.
• medical secretaries who type up doctor’s notes.
• booking clerks booking patients appointments with specialists and for surgery.
• Clinical coders enabling the Health Ministry and DHBs to keep track of money provided for operations and other medical procedures.

ENDS

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