Sarah Dalton: Association of Salaried Medical Specialists executive director on the Health Minister urging union members to negotiate

The senior doctor's union says a pay increase offered in negotiations with Health New Zealand doesn't seem to have changed. 

About 5,000 senior doctors have been striking today, after eight months of failed bargaining. 

Health Minister Simeon Brown is urging members to resume talks.

Salaried Medical Specialists Association executive director, Sarah Dalton, says what's being offered won't attract or retain talent. 

"What would be really helpful would be for the Minister to think about what funds they make available to Te Whatu Ora to help them sort this out."

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Afternoon. The latest on the doctor strike is that the
Health Minister, Simeon Brown has called the doctors back to
the negotiating table this afternoon.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Health New Zealand is committed to reaching a settlement with
ASMS and is applied to the Employment Relations Authority for
facilitation as the next step to resolve this. I urged
the ACMs union to return to the negotiation table so
a deal can be struck and patients can get the
care that they need.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
Sarah Dalton is with the union representing the doctors. Hi, Sarah, Hi, Heather,
how are you doing very well? Thank you? When are
you back at the negotiating table.

Speaker 3 (00:34):
Then there's a case conference tomorrow to talk about facilitation
and whether that's the next best process for bargaining.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
Was this something that was already planned or is this
something that that Simeon Brown has just initiated.

Speaker 3 (00:49):
No, no, we knew about it earlier this week. Futwada
told us they were going to apply for facilitation. This
is not news. It's we ended up in facilitation the
last two bargaining round. I think what would be really
helpful would be for the minister to think about what
funds they make available to to futt Order to help
them sort this out.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
As in how much more to offer you guys.

Speaker 3 (01:14):
Yeah, well he's been pretty clear that they have to
meet whatever the settlement is out of their baseline funding
which keeps being stripped back. So I mean, if he
wants to play a productive role in discussions, I think
this government needs to look at the way they're funding
health and particularly health workforce.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
What is the difference, Sarah, between what you've been offered
and what you guys want.

Speaker 3 (01:36):
Well, what's been offered for most of our members works
out at less than one percent a year over a
three year term. For about five hundred of our members
who had been in the first three years of working
a specialist, there's a little bit more there, but as
far as we can ascertain, what's been offered still fits
within the initial envelope that fut Order have brought to

(01:58):
the table, which is no more more than a one
and a half percent increase on their current spend on
senior doctor salaries.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
And the increase that you want is what we've put
an a.

Speaker 3 (02:08):
Claim for twelve percent. Now, obviously we're in bargaining, but
we are very far apart at the moment. As you
probably know we've got issues with relativities with junior doctors,
and I'm being bombarded with emails from our members showing
me examples of job offers outside of New Zealand where
they're being offered wild sums of money.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
They are they interested in taking it?

Speaker 3 (02:31):
Oh, look, some people already have right. I think the
people that were out there on the picket lines today
and participating in strike action are here because they're committed
to staying in New Zealand. What they really want is
enough colleagues to make their work tenable, sustainable and safe. Now.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
Samian Brown has regularly criticized the fact that you haven't
even put this offer to your member members. Why haven't
you done that?

Speaker 3 (02:52):
There's a couple of reasons for that. The first is,
in our constitution, our executive actually has decision making power
about settlements, generally poll our members when we think we've
got a serious offer and when we think we're at
a point of conclusion. But the second thing is there
was no more being offered than before. We've been closely
in contact with our members through the whole process about

(03:15):
what their expectations are, and I'd have to say the
twelve percent claim that we put is already a compromise
in the eyes of some of our members, because they
know very well what they can earn in private and
what's on offer over the tasmum.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
Sarah, Thanks very much, Sarah Dalton with the Association of
Salaried Medical Specialists.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to
news talks.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
It'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio.