Source: Association of Salaried Medical Specialists
To be attributed to ASMS Executive Director Sarah Dalton:
Health New Zealand failed to resolve its long-running pay dispute with the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists by failing to turn up with any meaningful improvement on its offer.
ASMS made it clear that the strike notice would not be lifted unless there was a sufficient movement on the initial pay offer. This did not occur.
The offer still represents a real pay cut for our senior medical workforce at a time when recruitment and retention is critical.
Health New Zealand, on arriving at bargaining, was unable to give accurate financial costings about its offer, there were errors in the position it tabled, which it was meant to update before bargaining resumed today. It did not do so.
Health NZ refuses to recognise a full year of delay to the bargaining process due to its inability to come to the table with a pay offer. Its bargaining team was not assembled until after the collective agreement expired and the first offer was not made until April 2025.
ASMS is still in bargaining. ASMS offered to meet again before strike day to make more progress. Health NZ has not taken up this offer.
ASMS members are not walking away from patients, they simply know it is critical to have a pay offer that it is competitive and continues to attract the medical workforce to New Zealand.
