Healthy Pay for Healthy Hospitals
The campaign for ALL service workers in public hospitals
Nearly 1500 Service and Food Workers Union (SFWU) members will receive a 2% pay increase from 1 April 2010 thanks to the breakthrough negotiations between the three biggest unions in the public health sector.
The Nurses Organisation, Public Service Association and SFWU, which cover 43,000 District Health Board employees, have combined together to negotiate a common pay increase and processes for dealing with the proposed DHB restructuring.
Two of the four public hospital contractors, Spotless and Compass, have also concluded their collective employment agreements with the Union giving the 2% pay increase (from 1 April) to these members as well. We are also close to concluding a similar deal with ISS for the Waikato, West Coast and Southern DHBs.
The only contractor outstanding is multi-national company OCS, who is refusing to offer any pay increase to our members they employ as cleaners in the Auckland, Lakes, Hawkes Bay, Wairarapa (orderlies included here too) and Canterbury DHBs.
A campaign of strike action is commencing on Thursday 3 June against OCS in these District Health Boards. They need to pay up and they need to do it now!
To read the media release click here
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The Healthy Hospitals campaign
In 2007/08, 3000 SFWU Nga Ringa Tota members employed as orderlies, cleaners, food service workers, security workers and home support workers in public hospitals set an important benchmark for low-paid workers.
The Union’s public hospital campaign, Healthy Pay for Healthy Hospitals, was finally completed at the end of 2008. It succeeded in establishing a minimum pay rate of $14.25 an hour (since increased to $14.62 an hour), a five-step wage scale and the restoration of weekend, night and public hospital penal rates that many of these workers had lost during the 1990s.
Click here to see video clips of SFWU members from the 2007/8 Healthy Hospitals Campaign
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