The Council of Trade Unions is calling on DHBs to drop their legal action against allied health workers including lab technicians who are planning strike action in response to persistent low wages.

“Allied health covers a broad range of services within our health system including social workers, physiotherapists, and lab workers. These are the people who have been vital to New Zealand’s COVID-19 response and they deserve better treatment than this.

“This is a workforce that has been stretched to its limits over the course of the pandemic and desperately deserves a fair pay offer, and one that is consistent with other settlements.

“Exhaustion and overwork is rife amongst these workers – they’ve been short staffed for too long. We can’t keep asking people in vital roles like lab technicians to burn themselves out – we’ll lose people and Kiwi’s healthcare will suffer.

“It’s time for the DHBs to stop avoiding that issue, face up to the consistent issue of underpay for these workers, and to drop their heavy handed legal action,” says Richard Wagstaff.

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