Dr Deborah Powell: APEX National Secretary ahead of the planned strikes set to impact patient tests

Medical lab scientists and technicians across the country are set to go on strike in the coming days.

Rolling strikes will take place across Pauanui, Pathlab and various med labs - beginning on the 22nd of March.

The union has revealed 123,000 fewer patient tests will take place as a result of the strike action. 

APEX National Secretary Dr Deborah Powell says important tests will still be carried out - but the results will be delayed.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Medical labs. Scientists and technicians are going on strike. They'll
be rolling strikes at Awanui path Lab and med labs.
This is all over the country for the week beginning
March twenty second. The union says one hundred and twenty
three thousand fewer patient tests will be done in that
week because of the strikes. The president is Debra Pale.
Good evening, Deborah, good evening.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Run I'm the national secretary, by the way, not the president.
They did not take that role, forgive me.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
And for APEX. I should clarify too. So, Debra, what
exactly do these technicians and scientists do?

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Okay, Well, the public probably know them best from COVID.
They really saved us during that period. They were the
ones who did all of the PCR testing. If you remember,
we all had things being stuck up our noses and
they were the ones who said, yep, let's COVID or
no it's not. But they do way more than that.
They diagnose infections, you know what bugs or bacteria you've

(00:55):
got in your system. They diagnosed problems with your red
blood cells, whether you've got keemia or not, whether you've
got anemia. They diagnose cancer through histology so they look
at bits of lumps and things they really don't want
and say, yeah, that's cancer or no, never.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
Mind important stuff. Oh yeah, and absolutely there's eight hundred
and fifty of them and they're going on strike. The
rolling strikes. One hundred and twenty three thousand patient tests
will be impacted. Will they be tests like the ones
you describe, some pretty important ones where you'd want to know.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
They may well be. If someone needs a test immediately
to keep them alive, putting it bluntly, then they will
be done. So that sort of stuff as cases. But yes,
other tests will be delayed. So you know your cancer
diagnosis for hostology, it will be delayed. It will be done,
it just won't be done as timely as the guys
normally do.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
So to photo or employees, the same types of workers,
laboratory scientists, technicians. And there's a thirty percent thirty percent
pay gap.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
Yes there is. You want to close the culmination of it, Yeah,
I want to close it. It's a culmination of a
number of things. There's pay equity which went through to
the fat or a lab workers that did not go
through the private corporates did not pay a pay equity
uplift and there is also a slow decline and insufficient
cost of living type adjustments having been made in the

(02:18):
private sector. So yeah, now there's a thirty percent gap
and we want it corrected.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
So who owns a who owns the forgive me? Who
owns the labs?

Speaker 2 (02:29):
Well, there's three different labs. The biggest one is Awanui
that's owned by a Canadian teacher's superannuation fund I think
about forty eight percent. There is an EWE interest in
that at about three point seven percent, and there is
also the New Zealand Superfund which owns it. So some
are owned offshore, some are owned here in New Zealand.

(02:50):
None of them are health providers, of course. They are
simply shareholders and they're looking for a dividend. They're looking
for profits to be paid out. So a anouis a
few years ago, just after COVID paid out forty four
million dollars in profit out to its shareholders. That money
largely came from the public purse. That's the private system,

(03:11):
isn't it. Here we are today saying hang on a
seat here, but your workers aren't being paid enough in
their crying poor. So we've got a bit of a problem.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
Talk to APEX national secretary.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
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