Overtime ban may spread

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32540, 25 February 1971, Page 3

Overtime ban may spread

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, February 24

The overtime ban at Oakley Hospital could be succeeded by similar action in other mental hospitals, the chairman of the Public Service Association’s mental health group (Mr K. Fleming) said in a supplied statement today.

He was replying to the statement by the Minister of Health (Mr McKay) that mental hospital staff should resume working overtime. Mr Fleming said the Oakley overtime ban was an unfortunate but necessary reminder to socially-conscidus people that all was not well within the country’s mental hospitals. He said the mental health group’s annual conference in Wellington had supported the ban as a means of illustrating that staff patience with departmental maladministration had run out.

“We ask for a greater recognition of our profession and more adequate remunera-

tion for our qualifications. Only by banning overtime have we been able to achieve working conditions which enable us to participate more fully in the lives of our families and communities. “The conference considers that the ban on overtime has been forced upon the staff at Oakley by the lack of real progress in negotiations to improve working conditions,” said Mr Fleming.

He said that the refusal of the Government to authorise the Health Department or the State Services Commission to enter meaningful bargaining over die hospital staffs’ claims placed the responsibility at the Government’s door.