CDHB Clerical Staff Urged To Join Union

CDHB Clerical Staff Urged To Join Union

“Clerical staff at the Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) are being urged to join a Union in a campaign underway this week,” said Martin Cooney, Organiser of the National Union of Public Employees (NUPE) today.

“The campaign is kicking off on Labour day, a day when the rewards of work done by past unionists in organising can be seen in the eight hour day and other benefits taken for granted by many today.”

“The clerical staff area is by far the lowest unionised section in the CDHB,” said Martin Cooney. “NUPE is aiming to persuade clerical staff of the need and value in organising into a union at this time.”

“Clerical staff have two main reasons to think about organising into a union right now,” said Martin Cooney. “The first is to ensure they are included in the revaluation of all health workers movement and the second is quite simply to protect their jobs.”

“All hospital staff are aware that the CDHB has lost about $30m of funding (over three years) from the introduction of a flawed Population Based Funding model,” said Martin Cooney. “Now clerical staff are seeing big pay rises for Doctors and Nurses and fear their jobs are being reviewed to pay for these.”

“If the roughly 400 non-unionised CDHB workers speak with a united voice, then clerical workers can fight off these cuts and become part of the move to higher wages for all health workers,” said Martin Cooney. “NUPE is seeking an extension of the large pay rises for doctors and nurses to all health workers to ensure the team approach necessary in a Hospital continues.”

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