New Zealand Nurses Organisation
Media Release
17 July 2008
Banning strikes won’t make problems disappear
Banning health professionals’ right to strike will not make employment relationship problems disappear, according to
NZNO chief executive, Geoff Annals.
Responding to calls to ban health professionals’ right to strike, Annals said such a right was an essential part of a
balanced and functioning employment relations environment. Banning the right to strike would upset the balance of the
employer/employee relationship and the long-term impact on health care quality and safety would be be much more serious
than the impact of rare strike action.
“It is not easy for nurses to strike and they don’t strike readily. It always a last resort, after every other avenue
has been explored. In such a situation, strike action may be the only way to force an obstinate employer to face up to a
critical issue, typically one that is already affecting patient safety, Geoff Annals said. “Sometimes it is only by
strike action that nurses have been able to get an employer to address fundamental workforce issues. Fundamental
workforce issues are as much about professional nursing practice as employment relations.”
Geoff Annals believes the focus should be on why strikes happen and what can be done to avoid them, rather than on
banning them. “Strikes are far less likely to arise in an industrial relations environment based on fairness and mutual
concern for patient and community well-being. This is the environment that prevails between most health sector unions
and most employers in the district health board sector, and strikes by nurses are rare in this sector,”Annals said.
He urged health unions, DHBs and the Ministry of Health to work more closely together to ensure employment relationships
within the public sector are not allowed to deteriorate to the point where some groups of health professionals feel
strike action is their only choice.
“But we should all beware of calls to scrap the right to strike. Precipitate action based on incomplete information and
assumed cause is very risky, whether in clinical practice or public policy; indeed it can often be downright dangerous,”
Geoff Annals said.
ENDS