Kia ora We’ve now got the first two days of DHB MECA negotiations under our belt and we wanted to share some of the discussions to keep you informed. The two sides met on Wednesday afternoon after the ASMS team spent the morning training for bargaining, and preparing to present our claim. Dr Kevin Snee (CE, Waikato DHB) set out the thinking of the DHBs. ASMS National President Murray Barclay followed with a slide presentation which backgrounds and informs our claim. It is available here. The ASMS claim which has been tabled (which does not yet include a salary claim) relates to SMO workforce wellbeing. That includes recruitment and retention of suitable staffing which relies on good conditions of employment. Suitable staffing levels will also ease fatigue and burnout. This is a large and detailed claim, with 55 clauses overall. We won’t publish the entire claim here, but to give you a sense of how big it is we have listed key aspects:
At the end of the two days it was agreed that the DHBs would take time over the next two weeks to review the ASMS claim and respond to individual clauses at the next scheduled negotiations. It was accepted that for claims that carry financial costs it might be difficult for the DHBs to respond until ASMS tables its salary claim package. It’s fair to say that after the first two days some early differences did emerge, but also some ‘commonalities’ – including an acknowledgement that fatigue and burnout need to be addressed. We’ll keep you posted on progress after the next two days of negotiations which are set down for February 26 and 27. If you have any questions or if you want to get in touch email meca@asms.org.nz Kind regards Lloyd Woods
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