Te Whatu Ora offering increases of up to 12.9% over next 12 months
Mediation between Te Whatu Ora senior doctors and dentists has failed, resulting in 5000 senior doctors and dentists going on strike.
The NZ Herald reports the unprecedented action means some 250 planned medical operations will be postponed, in addition to outpatient visits during the strike.
Highlighting that life-saving measures for patients would not be affected, Sarah Dalton, chief executive of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, told the Herald this was the first time the union had gone on a nationwide strike.
Dalton stated members wanted pay increases in line with the consumers price index (CPI) and expressed optimism Te Whatu Ora would “think again” in light of the strike action.
Te Whatu Ora’s Andrew Slater told Newstalk ZB, the organisation had offered increases of up to 12.9% over the next 12 months, highlighting that “anything more than what we’ve got on the table would require further reprioritisation.”
But Dalton told the Herald that this was not the offer put on the table.
“I can tell you now that if we, if what they have put on the table would have offered, annualised, that level of increase to our members, we would have snapped it up, but it’s not,” Dalton said.
“It’s just part of the landscape. It’s a service-based increase - they have built in the value of that increase into what they claim is the value of the settlement,” Dalton said.
The strike took place across the country from midday until 2pm at public hospitals and other health facilities that employ senior medical officers.
If mediation fails again following the first strike, a second strike is planned on September 13 between 10am and midday.
