Laboratory Workers at Awanui Labs strike this week

Awanui Labs, responsible for around 70% of public hospital and community medical laboratory testing, is still refusing to make anything approaching a reasonable pay offer to settle a collective agreement with their laboratory staff.

APEX members are striking for a fifth day of full withdrawal of labour at the beginning of this week.

Last year this business paid a 43m dollar dividend to investors. That saw 20m dollars leave New Zealand to support a Canadian Teachers Pension Fund.

"Effectively then, New Zealand taxpayers are funding a health system that contracts out its medical pathology services to a commercial business that winds up sending money overseas to support Canadian teachers in their retirement," said Advocacy Lead for APEX Union David Munro today.

"Did any of us taxpayers knowing sign up for that?" he asked today. "Then they come to the bargaining table crying poverty and claiming that they can’t afford reasonable pay increases for their workers."

Strikes and pickets continue today and tomorrow at Awanui Labs in the South Island and Wellington region, with a major rally planned for the Octagon in Dunedin on Tuesday (29 August) at midday.

"Time after time we hear anyone who knows how important laboratory pathology is to an effective functioning public health service ask, ‘how did we get here’? It’s a question that needs answering soon, and that answer must include significant investment in our laboratory workforce," concluded Mr Munro today.