September 17, 2004
All health workers deserve a fair deal
All health workers are underpaid and deserve an urgent response to their salary needs, PSA national secretary Richard
Wagstaff said today.
PSA is the biggest union in the health sector areas of mental health, allied health professionals (including
physiotherapists, occupational therapists, psychologists, and pharmacists), and clerical and administrative workers.
Richard Wagstaff said the PSA recognised that the New Zealand Nurses Organisation have run an effective campaign to draw
attention to the inadequate salaries of general nurses but it was time to address salary injustices in the health sector
as a whole.
“The needs of our members working in the health sector is a priority for the PSA. We have begun implementing an
intensive bargaining strategy, initially within district health boards, aimed at delivering significant pay increases
for our members working in the DHBs. This will be applied to members working in other areas of health as current
agreements expire.
“We are working towards multi-employer collective agreements (MECAs) to achieve pay and employment equity and greater
bargaining strength for our members in health. We will also be aiming for initiatives such as the government-subsidised
retirement savings scheme to be extended to the health sector.”
Richard Wagstaff said the needs of PSA members working in health had been overlooked for too long and it was now time to
address them.
ENDS