Strikes could lead to delays or cancelations of as many as 123,000 clinical laboratory test across the nation’s healthcare system
Once again, New Zealand medical laboratory workers are returning to the picket line. On March 6, APEX, a specialist union representing more than 4,000 allied, scientific, and technical health professionals throughout New Zealand, issued a strike notice to “three corporate laboratory companies—Awanui, Pathlab, and Medlab,” according to an APEX news release.
“Over 850 laboratory scientists and technicians across New Zealand will take rolling strike action over seven days beginning on 22 March, with at least 123,000 patient tests impacted. Over 70% of New Zealand towns and cities including Tauranga, Rotorua, Palmerston North, Gisborne, Wellington and Dunedin will lose access to medical laboratory testing for their public hospital, or primary care system, or both for a minimum of 72 hours,” the news release notes.
“Pathlab staff across Waikato, Bay of Plenty and Taupō will strike from March 24 until March 26, Awanui staff in Wellington and Canterbury will strike from March 25 until March 27, and Medlab workers in the MidCentral region will strike for a full week from March 22 until March 28. Auckland and the West Coast are the only regions where no labs are affected,” The Post reported.
“Those who use and rely on laboratory services need to brace for impact. We estimate that over 123,000 tests normally carried out as part of urgent or routine patient testing will not be performed during the week of strikes,” said Deborah Powell, MBChB, APEX National Secretary, in the news release.
“We are keen to work with the laboratory employers to resolve this dispute,” said Deborah Powell, MBChB (above), APEX National Secretary, in the news release. “Patients, clinicians, and laboratory workers are now stuck between the rock of underfunding and the hard place of corporate ownership of the medical laboratory sector. To avoid these rolling strikes, we need all parties to the dispute to work together to come up with a creative and sensible solution which works for everyone.” Clinical laboratories in the US may want to pay close attention to the struggles of their counterparts in New Zealand. (Photo copyright: New Zealand Doctor.)
Private Lab Ownership versus Public Funding
In February, more than 900 New Zealand medical laboratory workers nationwide walked off the job to protest “poor conditions and a lack of pay parity with the public sector,” according to the Otago Daily Times. Until now, that was the latest labor action in the ongoing struggle.
But those walkouts did not produce the results the union organizers had hoped.
“We didn’t get what we wanted at all,” Pathlab Tauranga senior medical laboratory scientist Steven Clements told NZ Herald. “We feel like there’s a lot of blame being passed between our employer and the government.”
Clements claimed the New Zealand government made its “standard statement” about it not being involved in private laboratory negotiations.
“They actually provide almost all of our funding, so we feel like the government hasn’t particularly listened. We also feel like our employer maybe isn’t really supporting us … so it’s led to another strike,” he said.
“We are in the weird situation where the employers agree with us,” said APEX National Secretary Powell, NZ Herald reported. “Pay parity between public and corporate employed lab scientists and technicians is the only fair, just, and sustainable solution to this dispute. Unfortunately, the lab triopoly are refusing pay parity without further government funding,” she added.
Disruptions in Care
As is the case with any strike, they are disruptive. During the February strikes, NZ Pathology Chairman, Peter Gootjes, DPH, director of the Awanui Group, told the New Zealand Doctor that they were trying to minimize any disruptions. The New Zealand Association of Pathology Practices (NZ Pathology), according to the organization’s website, is the “collective voice of New Zealand’s private sector laboratory providers, representing the views and aspirations of the funded pathology sector.”
“Our laboratories play an essential role in the provision of healthcare services, and we are working closely with the union, hospitals, and health professionals to ensure essential life-preserving services remain available and ongoing disruption to the community can be minimized,” Gootjes told New Zealand Doctor.
“Pathology sits at the heart of modern healthcare,” he continued. “Ensuring New Zealanders have access to quality, reliable, efficient and trusted pathology services is vital to patient care and public health. These services are a fundamental, yet often unseen, component of the clinical pathway for patients.
“We understand the concerns raised by APEX members and recognize the challenges posed by pay discrepancies following the previous government’s pay equity settlements for public sector employees. We are committed to working constructively with government and officials on this matter,” he said.
Pathlab, Health NZ Respond
In separate statements, Pathlab and Health NZ-Te Whatu Ora (New Zealand’s primary publicly funded healthcare system) attempted to address the APEX lab workers’ demands and assure the public.
“We value [APEX workers’] work and have engaged with APEX in good faith, doing everything we can within the funding we receive. … The problem is that private laboratories, including Pathlab, receive the vast majority of their funding through long-run bulk-funded contracts with Health NZ that pre-date the settlement and are inflexible when it comes to unforeseen cost increases, such as this one,” Pathlab’s chief executive Brian Millen stated, adding, “We remain committed to finding a workable solution while continuing to provide the high-quality services our communities rely on,” NZ Herald reported.
Health NZ, which, according to NZ Herald, “was aware Apex members were in collective bargaining … [but] not involved in this as they did not employ the private sector workforce,” sought to ensure that the strikes’ impact on hospitals and community healthcare services would be minimal.
“All our hospitals and emergency departments will remain open, and we are liaising with the private laboratories to ensure patients who require urgent and critical care receive the services they need, including testing carried out at hospitals and in the community,” said Health NZ, adding, “We respect the right of workers to take strike action and any questions about this matter should be directed to the employers or the union.”
Dark Daily has covered these ongoing strikes in many previous ebriefings. Clinical laboratory and pathology professionals in the United States should take note of their New Zealand counterparts’ recent and ongoing struggle for fair pay and safe working environments. America is no stranger to issues like these and our lab workers could find themselves in a similar situation.
—Ashley Croce
Related Information:
850 Medical Laboratory Workers Notify Looming Week of Rolling Strikes
Tauranga and Rotorua Pathlab Workers Strike for Second Time in Two Months
‘Thankless Role’: Lab Worker Strike Expected to Affect 123,000 Tests
Southern Medical Workers To Strike