A dispute that threatened rolling strikes by public hospital cleaners next week may be settled today, giving some of the country's lowest-paid workers pay rises of up to 27 per cent.
Service Workers Union co-ordinator Shane Vugler said district health boards and Australian-owned Spotless Services had tentatively agreedin mediation to share the cost of a $1 million to $2 million funding shortfall that has held up payment of wage increases agreed to last July for Spotless's 800 hospital workers.
Spotless employment relations manager Peter Jennings said the pay rises would be backdated to July 1, when some workers earned what was then the legal minimum wage of $11.25 an hour.
The deal sets a starting rate for hospital cleaners, orderlies and kitchen hands of $14.25 an hour (up 26.7 per cent), in line with an agreement the union reached earlier with other cleaning firms.
Waikato District Health Board chief executive Craig Climo, who has led the health boards in the negotiations, said he asked the heads of all 21 boards yesterday to ratify or reject the proposal by midday today.
He declined to give details but said: "Nobody is suggesting that the issue should be resolved by penalising the workers by taking money out of their pockets which they had expected to get. This issue does come down to a question of who pays, Spotless or DHBs."
Spotless workers went on strike on April 2, and gave notice of further rolling strikes from April 22, because Spotless had still not paid the new rates.
The company estimated initially that the deal would cost it $3 million but said it turned out to be closer to $4.5 million.
Mr Jennings said any agreement to share the shortfall was confidential, but he confirmed the deal had been endorsed by Spotless management and was waiting only on the DHBs.
Once DHBs agreed, Spotless would then sign a national collective agreement with the union to replace 17 existing agreements at local DHBs.
