Health workers to strike over pay

Radiographers at Nelson Hospital will strike tonight over the refusal of Nelson Marlborough District Health Board to consider anything other than a zero per cent pay rise.

The nationwide strike involves Association of Professionals and Executive Employees (Apex) workers in general X-ray, computed tomography (CT) and angiography.

From 4.30pm today until 8am tomorrow they will refuse to work after hours, apart from when there is danger of death or permanent disability to a patient.

The action runs at Nelson Hospital every night until April 17. On weekends it will run from 5pm to 9.30am.

The employment agreement covering radiographers at 20 hospitals throughout the country expired last September, and Apex had been negotiating with boards over pay and terms and conditions for a year before that.

Nelson Marlborough District Health Board medical services district manager Lindsey Bates said there would be two on-call staff at Nelson Hospital for life-preserving services. During the strike, patients referred for X-rays with non-threatening conditions would be asked to return the next day between 8am and 4.30pm.

Meanwhile, another health-worker protest planned for today has been postponed to next week.

A lunchtime picket by carers of intellectually disabled people will now take place next Tuesday outside the offices of Stoke Idea Services.

Nelson Service and Food Workers Union (SFWU) members were to take part in the nationwide protest, but spokesman John Cumming said it had been arranged at short notice and it had been difficult to gather staff to attend the local action.

Mr Cumming said the planned sleepover strikes tonight and Wednesday would still go ahead. Next week, they will strike on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.

About 70 union members work in 13 residential houses in the Nelson region, which are home to more than 130 intellectually and physically disabled people. The homes are managed by IHC's service branch, Idea Services. Nationally, slightly over half the organisation's community support workers are union members.

SFWU staff start on a base wage of $14.20 an hour. The union has been negotiating a 2 per cent pay increase with IHC on its members' behalf since last October, but those members are instead being offered a 12-month pay freeze. Although IHC had a 2 per cent increase in funding from the Ministry of Health last year, it has not passed that on to its staff.

- © Fairfax NZ News