Laboratory Workers at Awanui Labs Strike This Week
Monday 28 August 2023
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.
ENDS
Contact: David Munro
Laboratories National Advocate – APEX
Mobile: (027) 276 9999
Email: david@apex.org.nz
What is a Medical Laboratory Worker?
Medical Laboratory Workers are registered health professionals who run laboratories and test, interpret and report laboratory results. They are trained to identify disease and abnormalities through studying blood, tissue and other bodily samples. Laboratory workers work ‘behind the scenes’ but remain an integral part of the health system whose work is vital to patient treatment. More than 90% of prescribed treatments require laboratory input to aid/confirm diagnosis or to monitor drug levels or disease progression.
Medical laboratory science is a bit like detective work. Workers look for answers to the disease ‘puzzle’ to help doctors diagnose and treat their patients. They answer questions such as: are these cells abnormal? What do these blood cells tell us about this person’s health? How does it fit in with their other symptoms? How much of drug ‘x’ is in this person’s blood? Is it working effectively? What bug is making this person sick?
Medical Laboratory Workers take on a high level of responsibility, often needing to make important decisions under pressure. Emergencies can occur at any time, day or night, so laboratory workers have to prioritise and use their initiative, often without much back-up. If the doctor needs to know the answer, they have to deliver. Sometimes this means working through the night providing results while patients fight for their life in another part of the hospital or a surgeon waits, mid-operation, for a phone call.
Responsibilities include developing, adapting and applying scientific methods of analysis and ensuring high standards of quality assurance. An understanding of the methodology and theory behind complicated, technical and automated equipment is essential, as is developing the skills necessary to identify and interpret abnormalities under the microscope or via other diagnostic technology. Laboratory workers are highly regarded and sought after worldwide.