About 1000 striking public hospital workers were locked out of work today after the Employment Court yesterday confirmed their employer's right to do so.
The hospital cleaners, kitchen workers and orderlies are employed by contracting company Spotless Services, and work at 12 hospitals from Invercargill to Northland.
The
workers had planned to stop work from 7am today for 55 minutes of every hour, 24 hours a day.
Spotless said the strikes posed a health and safety hazard for the hospitals, and responded with lockout notices, which the workers' union, the Service and Food Workers' Union (SFWU), yesterday appealed to the Employment Court.
However, the court confirmed the health and safety grounds were sufficient to warrant the lockout action.
Spotless Services national human resources operations manager Peter Jennings confirmed today's lockouts were going ahead.
Mr Jennings said he understood the union had rejected an 11th hour wage offer from Spotless Services yesterday.
Spotless had offered to bring all its workers to a rate at least as high as those agreed under the DHBs' agreement.
It asked the SFWU to withdraw all its strike notices and return to the bargaining table to negotiate the detail of the offer.
Mr Jennings said he was disappointed the union had rejected the offer.
"In fact we still have not had an opportunity to meet with the union and present them with the details of the offer.
"We have told them that it does provide for exactly the same wages as the DHBs are offering, which we thought was their primary demand. We've met that demand and they are refusing to meet with us and refusing to withdraw their strikes."
SRFU spokesman Alastair Duncan said striking workers planned to present themselves for work and take industrial action.
Strike actions and lockouts could occur simultaneously, Mr Duncan said.
"The intention of the strike was always to give them the flexibility to make decisions every hour - we've issued multiple strike notices."
Mr Duncan said the union thought it was "probably illegal" for the employer to lock out workers.
If workers were physically prevented from working then they would clearly comply with the law, Mr Duncan said.
He confirmed the union had rejected Spotless' 11th-hour pay offer.
The affected hospitals are Invercargill, Palmerston North, Hastings, Wanganui, Tauranga, Rotorua, North Shore, Waitakere, Middlemore, North Shore, Waitakere, Whangarei and Northland.
- NZPA
