2 Sep 2010

Suspension of striking lab workers defended

12:47 pm on 2 September 2010

The head of Canterbury Health Laboratories is defending the suspension of some striking lab workers for five days.

Some district health boards are suspending lab workers engaged in rolling industrial action over pay since June.

Lab workers say that is why they have given notice of two 24-hour strikes, in Auckland on 10 September and in Canterbury on the 13th.

The general manager of Canterbury Health Laboratories, Trevor English, says the suspensions are justified. They occurred in areas where lab workers are not performing their full duty, he says, and the workload has changed as a result of the industrial action.

Mr English says that having people in the lab not performing their full duties makes the work unreliable and frustrates the normal systems in place,so it's possibly better not to have them there at all.

The Lab Workers Union says LabPlus, at Auckland Hospital, has also suspended workers for five days. It says suspensions are punitive and serve only to galvanise workers.