Workers at Oranga Tamariki begin strike action tomorrow over an insulting pay offer and a refusal by the agency to address their concerns over unsafe and unmanageable workloads.

"Workers are taking this action to send a very strong message to Oranga Tamariki that it needs to take their concerns seriously and make a fair offer," said Fleur Fitzsimons, National Secretary for the Public Service Association for Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi.

"Oranga Tamariki is effectively offering a real pay cut and failing to ensure workloads are safe and manageable. It’s unfair and incredibly damaging to the morale of workers carrying out such a vital role."

The strike covers around 2,800 workers including social workers, supervisors, kairaranga, youth workers, night workers, and support staff in care and protection and youth justice residences, family group conference coordinators, workplace administrators and national advisory and support staff.

In bargaining for a new collective agreement Oranga Tamariki has offered small lump sum payments and no salary increases and provided no solutions to long standing and growing workload management issues. Member proposals to enhance obligations to Te Ao Māori remain unresolved.

"Staff are burning out while the need to support tamariki, rangatahi, and whānau is not going away.

"Decades of reviews and inquiries have consistently identified high staff workloads as a barrier to Oranga Tamariki consistently delivering on its purpose. The Government’s reckless spending cuts have seen Oranga Tamariki lose over 400 workers, meaning those remaining must shoulder even higher workloads.

"If the Government is serious about supporting whānau and protecting tamariki and rangatahi from neglect and abuse; they need to invest more in this key frontline agency and do more to retain such critical workers."

Examples from PSA members about workload stress: Oranga Tamariki PSA member workload experiences

Details of strike action

A variety of actions will be taken by PSA members. Some actions include members working in essential services; care and protection residences, youth justice residences, residential homes, and the national contact centre (their actions begin 7 March). There will be a total withdrawal of labour across the agency for two hours from 3pm Friday 7 March.

The actions begin at 5pm on Friday 28 February and end on Friday 18 April. They include:

- A ban on all work that is not paid work, including only working standard hours of work and taking all rest and meal breaks.

- A ban on using all work-related systems and software outside of paid work, including online case recording systems.

- A ban on working paid overtime; and a ban on working overtime for TOIL.

- A ban on working double shifts.

- A ban on being on-call and working call-back (after-hours duties).

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