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Press Releases
Same Work Same Pay: Medical Laboratory Workers Strike for 48 Hours
On January 21 2025, APEX medical laboratory workers across Whangārei, Taranaki, Waikato, Tauranga, Whakatāne, Rotorua, Gisborne, Palmerston North, Whanganui, Hawke’s Bay, Wellington, and the South Island have voted to strike for 24 hours on both 5 and 7 February, impacting most hospital and community services nationwide. The action follows the rejection of APEX’s pay parity claims in three separate MECA negotiations with Awanui Labs, Pathlab Limited, and Medlab Central/Tlab. These workers earn 28-32% less than their Te Whatu Ora counterparts despite performing the same work, and their message is clear: “same work, same pay.” APEX is pushing for pay parity to address this wage disparity and support the rebuilding of struggling laboratory services.
850 Medical Laboratory Workers Notify Looming Week of Rolling Strikes
On March 6 2025, APEX issued strike notices on behalf of 850 medical laboratory scientists and technicians to corporate providers Awanui, Pathlab, and Medlab. The rolling strikes, spanning seven days from 22 March, will impact at least 123,000 patient tests and cut off medical laboratory services for at least 72 hours in over 70% of New Zealand’s towns and cities, including Tauranga, Rotorua, Palmerston North, Gisborne, Wellington, and Dunedin. The action follows a two-day strike over Waitangi weekend, which led to only modest progress in closing the 30% pay gap between these workers and their Te Whatu Ora-employed counterparts.
Read the full press release here.
Rolling medical laboratory strikes underway across New Zealand
Rolling medical laboratory strikes began on March 22 2025 in Gisborne, Whanganui, and Palmerston North, spreading to Rotorua, Bay of Plenty, and Waikato on Monday, then Wellington, Taranaki, Northland, and the South Island on Tuesday. The strikes will continue until Friday, delaying some lab tests by weeks. APEX, representing 850 striking workers, estimates that over 123,000 tests will go uncollected or unprocessed. Workers report that parts of the national laboratory network are on the brink of collapse due to understaffing and equipment failures.
Picket photos
Our private laboratory workers have been out on the picket lines across the country, kia kaha!
Media Roundup
- The Post – ‘Brace for impact’: Lab worker strike set to disrupt most of NZ
- The Post – Union delegate predicts ‘severe disruption’ to health services as laboratory staff strike
- RNZ – How regions will be affected as lab tech strike begins
- Dark Daily – New Zealand’s Medical Laboratory Workers Return to the Picket Line in Nationwide Labor Action
- RNZ – Lab workers begin strike action
- NZ Doctor – New round of lab strikes to start tomorrow
- BoP Times – Tauranga and Rotorua Pathlab workers strike for second time in two months
- RNZ – Surgery delays as lab workers strike for pay parity
- Otago Daily Times – Can we please not stike a 16th time?
- NZCity – Strikes today and Friday by medical lab workers
- Waikato Times – Pathlab worker strike highlights public-private pay gap
- NZ Doctor – Laboratory workers set to strike for two days in February
- Pharmacy Today – Reti rejects laboratory providers’ user-pays proposal
- Tairāwhiti News Digest – Gisborne medical lab staff to strike
- The Dominion Post – Lab workers strike for pay parity
- Otago Daily Times – Southern medical lab workers to strike
- Rotorua Daily Post – Pathlab strike: Tauranga worker claims he’d earn extra $30k for same job at Waikato Hospital
- The Press – Lab worker strikes have ‘massive’ impact on health services
- NZ Doctor – Striking lab workers and union question Medlab’s numbers
- Waikato Times – Blood takers on strike for more pay
- The Post – Diagnostic testing disrupted by strikes