Doctors fund war chest for pay fight

Ian Powell says it is too soon to talk about taking industrial action. Photo / Supplied

Senior doctors have fired the opening shot of next year's pay round with a veiled threat of industrial action if they do not win big rises to lift salaries closer to Australian rates.

Their union's executive director, Ian Powell, said yesterday that it was too soon to be talking about industrial action, but he also noted the group had decided to build a war chest to mount an effective negotiating campaign.

Annual fees for most would rise by $30 next year - to $720 - rather than by the $20 previously expected.

The extra cash would help to pay for potentially protracted negotiations with district health boards, covering the likes of public relations advice and having a number of doctors from around the country participating in the talks.

Strikes were narrowly averted last year by a backdated pay deal in which the offer of a Government commission to investigate "competitive and sustainable terms and conditions" was crucial.

The commission found senior doctors' pay was 30 to 35 per cent higher in Australia but said it was inappropriate for the commission to make recommendations on pay.

The union will be armed with the commission's report when it begins negotiating for a renewal of its collective agreement with DHBs, which expires next April.

Under that deal, which provided three annual rises of 4.25 per cent, specialists' base salaries rise through 15 annual steps to $195,441 a year, the top rate - but they can earn a significant sum from allowances, extra hours and shift work.

The union's conference last week reiterated that members want competitive rates - and that New Zealand is competing in an Australian market for senior doctors.

"The senior doctor workforce in New Zealand is vulnerable and brittle," said Mr Powell.

"We train high quality young doctors who then move to greener fields in Australia ... many patient services are being held together by a seriously short-staffed and overworked senior medical workforce."

But health boards and the Government want to rein in health-worker pay rises.

Waitemata DHB documents say it has assumed "zero cost growth" in pay deals negotiated in 2009-10.

Health Minister Tony Ryall told the senior doctors' conference next year's health funding increase would be smaller than this year's.

The DHBs' spokeswoman, Northland board chief executive Karen Roach, said: "We know we are going into a tough year. I don't think any of us really understood at this time last year just how tight it was going to be."

"No one likes to see industrial action, least of all the DHBs."