Radius resthome workers to vote on strike action
But company owner disputes union claims and says it's a government funding issue.
About 900 resthome workers employed by the Radius group will vote on strike action at stopwork meetings across the country today.
The Service and Food Workers Union says the meetings follow six months of negotiations over a staff claim that pay rates at the chain have fallen behind industry standards.
The union says 900 Radius resthome workers are members of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation and the Service and Food Workers Union Ngā Ringa Tota.
Joint union spokesperson Chrissy Darth claims Radius has failed to ‘pass on’ District Health Board funding two years in a row, leaving care assistants and other health professionals out of pocket.
Radius is privately owned with chief executive Brien Cree being the majority shareholder.
"We've been in negotiations with two unions since September and they're unhappy with our offer," he told NBR.
"Aged care is funded through the government and last year we got a fee increase of 1.72% and we've offered them that and they're not happy with that, we've offered them as much we can and they're not happy," Mr Cree says, adding that it's a government issue around the under funding of aged care.
Conor O'Brien
Wed, 25 Jan 2012
Wed, 25 Jan 2012
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Radius resthome workers to vote on strike action
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