Spotless Services Media Release

11 July 2007

Spotless Services Welcomes Court Decision

Spotless Services has welcomed the decision by the Employment Court confirming the health and safety grounds for lock outs in the hospital service sector.

“The Court’s decision is a sensible one. The SFWU’s rolling strikes are designed to create maximum disruption and confusion at hospital sites. There was a genuine health and safety risk to hospital patients,” said Spotless Services General Manager, Healthcare, Mark Russell.

The SFWU rolling strikes are set to continue for at least two weeks with each individual strike taking 55 minutes in every hour – but with the strikers intending to return to their jobs for the residual five minutes in every hour. Under the Employment Relations Act, in the absence of a lock out, covering staff would have been required to stop work every time the striking staff came back on site.

“We could not guarantee adequate levels of health and safety for patients in hospitals with striking and non-striking staff continuously coming and going and continuously interrupting their work. So, for health and safety reasons we have locked the striking SFWU members out for the period of their rolling strikes. The Court rightly understood the risks of patients being abandoned on their trolley half way to theatre, uncooked food and cleaning equipment lying about the corridors,” said Russell.

Russell reiterated that the lock outs were only a response to the strikes and that lock out notices would be withdrawn once strike notices were withdrawn.

Russell also stated that Spotless had not yet received a response to the wage offer it outlined to the SFWU earlier today in order to avoid the strike.

Spotless’ offer to the SFWU involves all current Spotless Services staff receiving wages at least as high as those recently agreed for DHB staff. In order to negotiate the detail of the agreement, Spotless requested the SFWU withdraw all its strike notices and returns to the bargaining table.

“Spotless has always been committed to passing on to its staff every cent of funding granted by the DHBs. This offer realises that commitment and the undertaking Spotless made at mediation on Sunday night to develop a wage offer.

“As yet we have not received any response from the SFWU,” said Russell.

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