KEY POINTS:
Last-ditch mediation talks have failed to break the deadlock between striking radiation therapists and their employers.
Union members in Palmerston North walked off the job for half a day yesterday at 2pm, the same time urgent talks between health boards and union representatives started in Auckland to avert
further action.
Talks ended yesterday without resolution, which meant a three-day strike for Canterbury radiation therapists beginning today will go ahead.
Two one-day strikes for Auckland and Wellington taking place on Thursday and Monday are also scheduled to proceed, although both parties are to meet again today.
Industrial unrest among the therapists, who administer radiation treatment for cancer patients, has taken place since last May, with sporadic action affecting all six of the country's oncology centres.
But unlike other strikes in the health sector this past year, patients have no alternative, short of heading overseas for private treatment, as New Zealand has no private providers of radiotherapy.
One Auckland breast cancer patient has already waited nearly four months to get radiation treatment, well outside Ministry of Health guidelines, which say four weeks is the maximum acceptable waiting time for radiotherapy. Longer delays are considered likely to reduce the chances of a cure.
The patient had surgery on September 1 and was told by a specialist to expect radiotherapy the following month. That was delayed by industrial action.
She now has a new date, January 18, but that too may be subject to change.
"People think it's only for a day, but treatment must be given every day, five days a week, for 20 treatments. When they have these rolling strikes, they can't start you."
The union is striking for a 5 per cent pay rise, its first since 2002. Union secretary Deborah Powell said last week members were incensed by the health boards' zero offer and a subsequent one of 1.4 per cent.
But the boards say the 2002 deal delivered forward pay rises of 4.4 to 6.6 per cent a year.
The boards had offered a 1.4 per cent rise from last October and 2.5 per cent from next July to a workforce whose incomes averaged just over $63,000, and ranged from $42,377 to about $92,000.
National Party health spokesman Tony Ryall said the cost of the strike was now higher than the cost of the pay claim.
STRIKE ACTION
* MidCentral (Palmerston North): half-day strike from 2pm yesterday.
* Canterbury: 7.30am today to 7.30am Friday.
* Auckland and Wellington: Thursday and Monday.