Collective agreement impasse key issue

Wednesday 31 October 2006

"Collective agreement impasse key issue for senior doctors' conference"

"The impasse in the national collective agreement covering senior doctors employed by district health boards will be a key issue in our Annual Conference over the next two days," said Mr Ian Powell, Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, today. The Association's Annual Conference will be held in Wellington on 1-2 November.

"Our assessment is that the district health boards are adopting a misery
irresponsible position and in effect are refusing to negotiate with us in a genuine manner. They are refusing to budge on key issues and seeking old fashioned adversarial claw-backs on others."
"The district health boards have adopted a hard line position that threatens the ability of our public health system to provide accessible high quality care for patients."

"Our Conference has attracted a record number of delegates from throughout the country who will consider what approach to take to break this impasse," concluded Mr Powell.

ENDS

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