A 24-hour walkout is set for November 2 - with a 72-hour strike on the ballot
More than 600 medical lab workers across New Zealand have a strike date locked in - and the clock is ticking.
The Employment Relations Authority issued a determination on October 12 ordering urgent facilitation - a process where the Authority steps in to help the parties reach a deal - between the Association of Professionals and Executive Employees (APEX) and Canterbury SCL Ltd and its related companies, a group of medical laboratory providers now trading under the Awanui Labs brand. The employer group operates under long-term contracts with Health New Zealand across Northland, Auckland, Taranaki, Wellington, and the South Island.
The dispute centres on a replacement collective agreement covering around 620 workers across multiple employers. APEX kicked off bargaining on September 4, 2026, with the existing agreement set to expire on October 30.
But the two sides never got that far.
Since late June, the parties had been going back and forth over two preliminary documents - a Bargaining Process Agreement, which sets the ground rules for negotiations, and a Life Preserving Services plan, which ensures essential lab work continues if workers walk off the job. They met on September 8. They could not agree on either.
The employer's position was clear: sort out the process agreements first, then bargain. APEX took a different view. On September 9, the union raised concerns that the employer was breaching its statutory duty of good faith by refusing to move to substantive talks while those process matters remained unresolved.
Mediation on October 1 went nowhere.
The next day, APEX wrote to the employer warning that the "refusal to bargain has precipitated balloting for industrial action" and flagging its intention to apply for urgent facilitated bargaining. The employer responded on October 5, saying it was "prepared to support a joint application for facilitated bargaining" and wanted to "move promptly."
By that point, APEX had already issued a 24-hour strike notice for November 2, 2026, and was balloting members for a further 72-hour walkout.
The Authority granted the application on public interest grounds. Both parties agreed that the union's coverage of around 620 members across a variety of roles was significant, and the Authority found that a strike, if it went ahead, "would be likely to affect the public interest substantially" - particularly given the nature of the services provided, which includes urgent laboratory work for the public health system.
On the good faith question, the Authority was less willing to wade in. It found that any argument the employer's conduct amounted to a serious and sustained breach was "premature."
The parties are not new to this. They have been through facilitation in previous bargaining rounds.
The Authority ordered the parties into facilitation, with a case management conference to be convened as soon as possible. A different Authority member will run the process. No costs were awarded.
For HR teams managing collective bargaining in healthcare and essential services, the case is a practical illustration of how insisting on process agreements while a collective agreement expiry date is bearing down can trigger industrial action faster than the bargaining itself.
