Source: PSA
Strike to begin 28 February with two hour full labour withdrawal 7 March
PSA members at Oranga Tamariki are taking strike action over an insulting pay offer and a refusal to address the concerns of workers over unsafe and unmanageable workloads.
“Enough is enough – Oranga Tamariki is effectively offering a real pay cut and failing to ensure workloads are reasonably sized and well managed,” said Fleur Fitzsimons, Assistant Secretary for the Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi.
The strike covers around 2,800 workers including social workers, supervisors, staff in care and protection and youth justice residences, family group conference workers and admin support staff.
“It’s insulting to workers who are doing vital work for the agency supporting at risk tamariki and rangatahi at a time of rising stress for many families.”
In bargaining for a new collective agreement Oranga Tamariki has offered small lump sum payments and no salary increases and provided no solutions to the long standing and growing workload management issues which have only been aggravated by last year’s big job cuts.
“The workers care deeply about the children they support, but they are left with no choice. The pressure on staff to keep working after hours, such as with emergency care placements for children overnight in motels or offices, is unacceptable.
“Workers are sending a strong message to the Government that it must make a fair offer, and develop a fair workload management system or more staff will face burn out.
“Decades of reviews and inquiries at Oranga Tamariki have consistently identified high staff workloads as a barrier to good outcomes for tamariki, rangatahi and whānau. Without progress, we will see more skilled people leave Oranga Tamariki – how can that be good for the children in the agency’s care?
[See attached stories from workers about the stress they are enduring]
“The latest child poverty statistics this week show no change in the number of children living in material hardship. We know poverty creates stress for families. This is the time when the Government should be investing in the services Oranga Tamariki provides, and doing all it can to support and retain workers.
“Instead it has gutted Oranga Tamariki, forced it to shed over 400 workers, increased workloads, cut contracts for many community service providers and now is turning a blind eye to the pay and conditions of so many of its own workers.
“This risks creating lasting damage to the tamariki, rangatahi and whānau of New Zealand who need Oranga Tamariki’s support.”
Details of strike action
A variety of actions will be taken by PSA members. Some actions include members working in essential services; care and protection residences, youth justice residences, residential homes, and the national contact centre (their actions begin 7 March). There will be a total withdrawal of labour across the agency for two hours from 3pm Friday 7 March.
The actions begin at 5pm on Friday 28 February and end on Friday 18 April. They include:
-A ban on all work that is not paid work, including only working standard hours of work and taking all rest and meal breaks.
-A ban on using all work-related systems and software outside of paid work, including online case recording systems.
-A ban on working paid overtime; and a ban on working overtime for TOIL.
-A ban on working double shifts.
-A ban on being on-call and working call-back (after-hours duties).