Southland Doctors Rally Around For Laboratory Staff

Junior doctors at Southland Hospital have been providing Awanui Laboratories staff with grocery vouchers and meals to compensate for their low wages.

Last week medical registrar Dr Andrew McLachlan gifted head of processing Sue Diack the packages after becoming aware of how poorly they were paid.

“They have all rallied together to provide support for us while we fight for fair pay. They have also acknowledged how important we are in order for them to provide healthcare to their patients – without us there are no test results,”

Awanui Labs around the country rejected a 5% pay offer and started striking again at the end of August. It was the third round of strikes since the Apex union negotiations began with the private company.

The union want 23.5 percent for scientists, technicians and phlebotomists and will strike again – including in Invercargill, on September 20th – coinciding with the national Co-Lab sector forum.

The group’s collective contract expired on June 31 and Invercargill union delegate Karen Elizabeth said the initial offer wouldn’t even bring them into line with what their colleagues were earning for Te Whatu Ora.

Conditions in the lab have been crazy in recent months.  People have been quitting and Southland Hospital is short staffed, with only 5.5 fulltime scientists instead of 8 – forcing everyone to work horrendous hours.

Karen has been working in her job for 15 years and said post Covid they have been swamped.

The Hello Fresh food packs and vouchers had been “amazing support” for the staff, and meant they could keep the bargaining process going on quite a bit longer.

“We are so behind the scenes in our job but to go to that effort makes us feel really seen,” she said.

Shareholder profits from Awanui Laboratories is understood to be sent overseas including Canada, for local school teachers – which was hard to understand when many lab workers were on minimum wage, Karen said.