Union Intransigence Derails Mediation

All District Health Boards
20 DHB Media Release

13 September 2017

UNION INTRANSIGENCE DERAILS MEDIATION

The scheduled mediation meeting by DHBs with the NZ Resident Doctors Association, the union for resident (or junior) doctors, concluded without significant progress on the key outstanding issue of hours of work.

“Dr Powell and her Union came to mediation with a fixed view and a closed mind in regard to reviewing RMO rosters. It is now clear that Dr Powell has no intention of resiling from her industrial campaign aimed at undermining public confidence in our health service,” said Julie Patterson, Lead CEO for the 20 DHBs’ Workforce and Employment Relations Programme and CEO of Whanganui DHB.

“Whilst NZ offers some of the best working hours in the world for doctors, there is still a need, in some services, to reduce the hours they work. The DHBs have been progressively addressing the issue in a way that builds on the quality services provided to patients and maintains the world class training the RMOs receives. By the Union’s own admission the DHBs have thus far dealt with 80 of the 144 rosters where the Union has raised as a concern.

“Dr Powell is using this pay negotiation to demand a single solution to the roster issues, for all RMOs irrespective of patient and service need, the impact on other health professions and even the impact on training opportunities for her own members.

“Moreover, she is expecting DHBs to accept a premise that rostering RMOs for less days and out-of-hours work, without a corresponding reduction in pay, will somehow result in better public health services. DHBs will not accept this premise. Further, we would be surprised if the majority of her members expected to get paid for days or hours they had not worked. We expect many of the RMOs will be concerned about the impact of this ‘lifestyle roster’ on their training opportunities.

“The DHBs are taking a fair and reasonable approach to this bargaining” said Julie Patterson. “We have made an offer that undertakes to review all the rosters of concern to the Union. Our offer includes a 5% pay increase for RMOs over the next three years. This is an increase of $60m for this workforce over that time.

“It is disappointing that Dr Powell is running a campaign based on scaring the public about the standards of hospital care. Sadly, we are expecting to hear a lot more unsubstantiated statements about RMO fatigue and patient safety as part of the Union’s continuing campaign. These issues are of significant importance to DHBs and to all our clinical staff; it is frankly offensive to suggest otherwise. However, we will not be pressured in to agreeing to an unreasonable industrial claim,” said Mrs Patterson.

“The DHBs want to work with our RMOs to ensure they work in a safe and fair environment so they can deliver excellent service to their patients and enhance their learning opportunities. This continues to be the DHBs’ objective in bargaining. The Union contention that DHBs are refusing to address the hour’s doctor’s work is deliberately misleading.”

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