New Zealand’s stretched health system is expected to come under further pressure as more than 5000 senior doctors have threatened to take part in an unprecedented strike for 24 hours tomorrow after several months of pay negotiations between the doctor’s union, the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS), and Te Whatu Ora Health NZ stalled.
Workers do not take strike action likely. They know that they will not be paid for the time off striking. They also know that it can cause a lot of disruption, which may in turn affect any sympathy the public may have for their cause. But is it their last cry for help?
In Britain, a strike by council bin workers in Birmingham is set to continue after the latest pay offer by the city council was "overwhelmingly" rejected. The dispute is around the council's decision to remove Waste Recycling and Collection Officer (WRCO) roles. The union argues that the council is doing away with important health and safety roles and that about 170 affected workers are facing losing up to £8,000 annually due to the decision, with hundreds more losing out on the prospect of pay progression. The council argues that a "fair and reasonable offer" has been made and that every employee affected by the removal of the WRCO role could take an equivalent graded role in the council, LGV Driver training or voluntary redundancy packages.
Strike action began with union members staging one-day walkouts in January after the council’s announcement. Strike action escalated on 11 March when more than 300 union members began an all-out strike. The strike remains in place as the stand-off continues and as it continues bin bags and rubbish have been piling high in Birmingham streets.
In New Zealand the senior doctors are seeking a 12 percent pay increase; Te Whatu Ora has responded with an offer of between 1 and 1.5 percent. Stats NZ is reporting that the cost of living for the average New Zealand household increased 3.0 percent in the 12 months to the December 2024 quarter. The rate of inflation has risen to 2.5 percent from 2.2 percent and Stats NZ also reports that the consumer price index rose 0.9 percent in the three months ended March, the biggest quarterly increase since the September quarter of 2023 when the cost of living crisis was peaking.
Health Minister Simeon Brown has struck out and accused the senior doctors of using patients as "bargaining chips" as part of their negotiating tactics. He said the union was putting "politics ahead of patients" and that the strike action will increase waitlists. The Minister also tried to “shame” the senior doctors by claiming that they are well paid, with an average salary of $343,500.
Sarah Dalton, the Executive Director of ASMS, said "patients are a sacrificial lamb to our under-staffed health service every single day," and that "if Te Whatu Ora invested in the doctors and other health workers we needed, we wouldn't be having to take this action. She reports that "we are wildly short-staffed and the employer is not putting in proper retention and recruitment strategies in place to retain the doctors we need." It is understood that average senior doctor vacancy rates are approximately 12 percent, although some hospitals have vacancy rates as high as 45 percent.
The union also challenged claims by the Health Minister that senior doctors were being paid an average salary of $343,500. It says the average salary for senior doctors was closer to $240,000 a year. The union claims that senior doctors at the top end of the salary scale in New Zealand are being paid less than their counterparts at the bottom end of the New South Wales scale. "We are bleeding people to Australia" Sarah Dalton says.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins says "hurling mud" at senior doctors ahead of industrial action is not helpful. He says "the sort of inflammatory language we've seen from Simeon Brown is more likely to guarantee further strikes, more likely to see more of our doctors leaving the country and moving to countries that will pay them better, and that's not going to be good for New Zealand patients."
But all is not well elsewhere, across the ditch the NSW public hospital system is also experiencing strikes. Despite being warned by the Industrial Relations Commission, more than 3500 doctors took part in a three-day strike across the state last week. It comes after the ultimate protest took place in NSW this year when hundreds of psychiatrists resigned over pay and conditions in what the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists called a system on the verge of collapse.
Whether workers are council bin workers or highly skilled medical professionals, it does speak volumes when they take industrial action. The council bin workers probably cannot afford to not get paid while they fight for their jobs for weeks on end. Doctors can probably afford to lose a few days pay to protest over being properly remunerated, but it is in the context of being in an overworked health work force that is unlikely to see any meaningful change for many years. Read more...