Junior doctor strike 'to hit harder'

Another junior doctors' strike will be even more debilitating for hospitals, says their union, which is refusing to rule out further industrial action as winter looms.

About 2400 doctors are expected to walk off the job for 48 hours from 7am tomorrow.

A strike two weeks ago forced the cancellation of more than 850 operations and 5500 outpatient appointments nationwide.

District health boards and the junior doctors' union, the Resident Doctors Association, engaged in tit-for-tat attacks yesterday after talks ended in disarray last week.

The district health boards' lead negotiator, David Meates, said the union had rejected a new pay offer, which included an independent commission looking into issues facing junior doctors.

"There is no real attempt by the RDA to get a settlement here. It is about exerting industrial pressure to support an unrealistic pay claim," he said.

However, RDA national secretary Deborah Powell said the employers should "stop posturing and start negotiating".

The DHBs' offer last week of two increases of 4.25 per cent falls short of the 10 per cent a year for the next three years demanded by the union.

Dr Powell dismissed talk of an independent commission under the auspices of the Health Ministry as more stalling tactics.

A committee - of which there had already been at least five in the last eight years - could only make recommendations, which would be probably ignored, she said.

The DHB claimed their offer to junior doctors was comparable to the provisional settlement with the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists.

However, Dr Powell said the RDA had not been offered any of the extra allowances offered to their senior colleagues.

A genuinely consistent offer would have averted strike action, she said.

Meanwhile, the level of support for industrial action had risen, with 400 doctors joining the union in the last month, a 20 per cent increase.

A handful of union members who had worked during the last strike were reconsidering their options, she said.

Members had not ruled out further strike action over winter.

- © Fairfax NZ News