A strike is planned at a Hastings rest-home where insufficient Government funding means some staff are getting some of the smallest aged-care pay-packets in New Zealand.
The action is planned for Colwyn House, where about 25 members of the Service and Food Workers Union will take industrial action from Monday, two hours a day for five days, if they are unable to get a better deal.
Union organiser Thomas O'Neil said union and Anglican Care employer representatives have met MPs to try to get better funding for the running of the three-wing, 48-bed facilities.
The union claims the District Health Board is channelling some clients to Colwyn because it is cheaper than other options.
Mr O'Neil said rates paid to the SFWU members - believed to the lowest-paid Anglican Care staff in New Zealand and about a third of the full staff of care and administrative personnel at the facilities off Duke St, Mahora - start at $13.85 an hour (10 cents above the adult minimum wage) and stop at $15.