Resident doctors have decided not to take strike action later this month, due to yesterday's powerful quake, their union says. Deborah PowellMembers of the Resident Doctors Association (RDA) had planned to walk off the job for a second time this year for 48 hours, beginning at 7am on Wednesday November 23, and had notified all 20 DHBs. “Our thoughts are with all of those affected by the events that have recently taken place.”In mid-October, doctors took strike action for two days. The dispute was at first over the union's demands for safer working hours and its assertion that long hours were putting patients and doctors at risk. But after the DHBs agreed to safer rosters although without paying for the resulting days off, the row took on a pay element also.

Source: Otago Daily Times November 15, 2016 01:54 UTC