Union calls for 'One Complete Solution' from OCS

Union calls for 'One Complete Solution' from OCS

Cleaners and orderlies employed by OCS have withdrawn strike action for the next 48 hours to allow for high-level discussions to happen between the DHBs and OCS.

The strike action planned by Service and Food Workers Union members at hospitals in Auckland, Rotorua, Hawkes Bay, Wairarapa, and Christchurch will remain in place for Friday 11 June, depending on whether OCS offers the 2% other hospital workers have already won.

SFWU Northern Regional Secretary Jill Ovens says the cleaners and orderlies employed by trans-national contractor OCS are frustrated that their employer has not done the right thing and made a pay offer, even though the union understands the DHBs have increased the funding in their service contracts.

"In some cases the DHBs have offered significant funding increases that OCS has turned down," Jill Ovens says.

"They are using our members as pawns to get a better deal out of the DHBs."

The OCS website promotes their business as one that is built on people and that to ensure they attract and retain the best, they offer fair and competitive reward packages together with a significant range of non-financial benefits. The SFWU says this flies in the face of the actual situation on the ground here in hospitals in New Zealand says Jill Ovens.

"Our members are asking OCS for a 2% payrise backdated to 1 April 2010. This is the same as other hospital workers employed directly by the DHBs or other contractors have already been offered. Nothing more, nothing less. We have 'One Complete Solution' to all of this. We want them to do the right thing and pay up!"

ENDS

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