IHC workers receive pay rise after months of talks, action

NATASHA MARTIN/The Timaru Herald

A STRUGGLE: IHC workers' fight for a pay rise was worth it, says Service and Food Workers' Union Timaru delegate Heather Woolstencroft.

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It has been a long struggle for IHC workers to gain a 1 per cent pay rise, but it has been worth it, Service and Food Workers' Union Timaru delegate Heather Woolstencroft says.

There are 120 South Canterbury members among the 3000 employed under the IHC Collective Employment Agreement. Its members will receive a pay increase of 1 per cent back-dated to November, and a further 1.5 per cent increase from November this year.

The union and IHC have been in negotiations since November although IHC had imposed a wage freeze.

"It has been a struggle and it is never as much as you want," Mrs Woolstencroft said. "It has been worth it in that it has raised the profile once again of the work that we do, and the people we do it for. It has highlighted too, the plight of low-income workers, predominantly women, and it has been worth it for that. Has it been worth it for our pockets? I would say probably not.

"We have done what a lot of organisations couldn't do, break a wage freeze," she said. "It is going to be a while before we have recovered what we have lost [from taking industrial action]."

The pay negotiations were settled only after six weeks of industrial action, including bans on non-essential paperwork, overtime, use of personal vehicles and "sleepover shifts".

For some workers the increase will equate to less than $6 a week before tax. "It had to be done. The Service and Food Workers' Union have been supporting the hospital cleaners and staff and they got their 2 per cent [wage increase] and it was essential that we stay above the minimum wage."

- © Fairfax NZ News

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