DHB Double Standards on Wages Shows Contempt for Staff

ATTENTION: HEALTH OR POLITICAL REPORTER

MEDIA STATEMENT FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE,
FRIDAY 16 JANUARY 2015

DHB Double Standards on Wages Shows Contempt for Health Service Staff

“The size of the pay rises received by public health service bosses in the past financial year beggar belief given that the people who actually deliver the services have been forced to accept real pay cuts,” says Ian Powell, Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS).

“The State Services Commission (SSC) report on movements in the remuneration bands for district health board (DHB) chief executives between 2012/13 and 2013/14 has been a real eye-opener.”

The SSC report, released before Christmas, shows that most DHB chief executives received substantial pay rises in the 2013/14 financial year, ranging from increases of $10,000 through to $180,000: http://www.ssc.govt.nz/sites/all/files/rem-senior-statesector-staff-30june14.pdf. At the same time another SSC report, Human Resource Capability, shows public health service staff received an average pay increase of 0.7% - less than half the 1.6% inflation rate for 2013/14: http://www.ssc.govt.nz/sites/all/files/hrc-report-14_0.pdf

At the top of the scale, the salary band for Auckland DHB’s chief executive rose from $390,000 to $399,999 in 2012/13 to a band range of $570,000 to $579,999 in 2013/14. This appears to be an increase of $180,000, or 45.6%, although the SSC does note that the salary band for 2012/13 covers just 10 months of that financial year for chief executive Ailsa Claire, compared with the full 12 months of 2013/14.

Southern DHB chief executive Carole Heatly also seems to have received a large pay rise, rising from a salary band of $390,000 to $399,999 in 2012/13 to a band of $500,000 to $509,999 in 2013/14 – an increase of $110,000 or 27.8%.

And Hawke’s Bay DHB chief executive Kevin Snee recorded a significant hike in his salary band over the same period, rising from a band of $430,000 to $439,999 in 2012/13 to a band of $500,000 to $509,999 in 2013/14 – an increase of 16.1%.

Most other DHB chief executives received smaller – but still significant – increases of between $10,000 and $30,000, representing rises of between 2.1% and 5.6%.

“Leaving aside the excessiveness of the top-end pay increases, we recognise there is a competitive international market for chief executives and it is vital that we are able to attract and retain high quality people, and part of that is through offering decent employment packages.”

“The exact same argument applies to many health service staff, yet the DHBs have treated their bids for very modest pay increases with contempt.”

“Such double standards in fact reflect a bigger issue concerning the treatment of public health service employees. As the SSC report Human Resources Capability reveals, in 2013/14 the 0.7% pay increase for health service staff compares with an average pay increase of 1.8% for the general private sector workforce. Further, over the last four years public health service pay increased by 5.9% on average, compared to 8.4% for the private sector – and the gap has been widening.”

“These trends are not going unnoticed by public health service employees. They are expecting fairer treatment for the next round of pay negotiations both in relation to the increases gained by their bosses and those gained in the private sector,” said Mr Powell.

ENDS

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