Talks break down in hospital award

Press, 8 November 1988, Page 7

Talks break down in hospital award

Negotiations in the award covering public hospital domestic workers were torpedoed yesterday before getting off the ground, said the Employers’ Federation. Conciliation dates were set down for three days, but union representatives left the informal talks before the council could be set up, the federation said. The secetary of the Canterbury Hospital Workers’ Union, Ms Lianne Dalziel, said any talk of the union’s walking away was untrue. Workers offered to withdraw notice of industrial action if the Gisborne Hospital Board agreed to delay the implementation of trials, she said.

Employers learnt last Friday that 14 days notice of industrial action had been served on the Gisborne Hospital Board for agreeing to take part in a trial involving frozen food for meals on wheels. A spokesman for the employers, Mr Paul Weaver, said it was a well known policy that employers did not negotiate under threat of industrial action. Ms Dalziel said the union was there to negotiate an award and the Gisborne dispute had nothing to do with the negotiation of that award. The policy Mr Weaver referred to was an Employers’ Federation policy and not a legal requirement.