Whanganui DHB staff among healthcare workers planning strike from Friday morning

The strike is planned from 6am on Friday to 6am on Saturday. Photo / Bevan Conley

Allied health workers at the Whanganui District Health Board are planning to strike for 24 hours from Friday morning as pay talks continue.

The strike, which is planned from 6am Friday to 6am Saturday, is part of a nationwide strike over pay talks with health professionals by PSA Allied, Public Health and Technical MECA.

The strike planned by Allied Health workers could see a number of hospital, community and outpatient services postponed.

However, as Covid-19 case and hospitalisation numbers rise, district health boards (DHBs) have asked the Employment Court to stop Friday's planned strike.

Allied health covers a broad range of services including physiotherapists, laboratory workers, speech language therapists and social workers. The nationwide action covers 10,000 PSA members.

The Whanganui DHB said the groups covered by this agreement were a highly valuable part of the health workforce.

The DHB and the PSA have been working to ensure emergency and acute services continue during the strike and anyone who needs urgent treatment should go to Whanganui Hospital.

Most planned surgeries and services will continue as normal, although some endoscopy procedures, outpatient clinics and community visits may need to be postponed. School
dental clinics will be closed on the day of the strike. Vaccination clinics will remain open.
Anyone affected will be advised and new times rescheduled.

The DHBs are continuing work with the union to try to find a settlement and avoid the threatened strike.

The PSA said it would "vigorously oppose" attempts by the DHBs to stop Friday's strike action.

PSA organiser Will Matthews said they were not trying to negotiate their pay equity claim through this process, just to obtain payment to ensure members could stay afloat while their pay equity claim was settled.

"A heavy-handed legal approach is not the solution," he said.