How do Life Preserving Services (LPS) work during a strike?
if your employer believes they need the assistance of ASMS members to provide LPS during a strike they can make a request of ASMS.
In practice Te Whatu Ora and ASMS meet as soon as a strike notice is issued and negotiate in good faith, service by service, the number of SMOs/SDOs needed to maintain life preserving services (LPS) during the strike.
There is an adjudication process available if ASMS and Te Whatu Ora cannot reach agreement within 5 days of the strike notice being issued.
Once an LPS arrangement is agreed (including the number of doctors permitted to work during the strike) each service will be notified about the arrangement.
First, non-union members are required to fill these LPS positions. The employer is responsible for seeking non-union cover for the LPS roles.
If there are no non-union members who can cover, ASMS members in that service will decide amongst themselves which SMO will cover the agreed LPS arrangement.
If you are not given a copy of the LPS arrangement for your service, or you think the LPS arrangement is inappropriate, contact your ASMS industrial officer.
Where a service is unable to fill the LPS roster with (a) non-union labour and (b) union volunteers, they will revert to ASMS for assistance.
What duties should I perform if I agree to fill an LPS role?
You should only be carrying out LPS duties (that is, acute work required to prevent loss of life and limb). You should not attempt to carry out normal clinics, or surgeries, or other patient work.
I am not sure what work is permitted through the strike?
Check the LPS arrangements for your service. This document must be available to all members.
I will be the only staff member rostered on in our small service during the strike days. What should I do?
The LPS arrangements for your service will take that into account. You should only do LPS duties (e.g. call).
I’m an ED consultant who will be providing LPS during the strikes — should I be assigned a case load on those days?
Not if the case load includes patients not covered by the LPS arrangements
I’ve been asked to quietly continue with a non-urgent clinic or list. What do I do?
Politely decline. If you believe a clinic or list meets the definition of LPS and it has not been included in the schedule you should contact us as a matter of urgency.
I know that this strike is going to lead to a backlog of work in an already overloaded system. How does our service deal with this?
You should not be required to work additional duties (or run additional or overloaded clinics) to “catch up.” If your service asks for volunteers to run additional clinics (remunerated at additional duties rates) it’s your decision if you are happy to work more hours.
It is not ok for extra work to be jammed into your normal hours as a required “catch up.”
I feel weird about standing on a picket line. What could I do instead?
So many things! You can see some ideas here. But the key action when we’re striking is to stay away from work.
I want to be more radical! What else can I do?
Talk to your local industrial officer about things you can do to help our campaign.
My local manager (who I have a good relationship with) is being pressured to maintain services through the strike. What do I do?
Offer to work through LPS issues with them. LPS arrangements will have been agreed but any unresolved matters should be escalated to ASMS and senior managers including the CMO.
We are receiving unhelpful newsletters/emails/communications from management. How do we deal with these?
Forward them to ASMS. Do not engage with them.
I didn’t vote to strike – do I have to participate in the industrial action?
Yes you do. All ASMS members are bound by this decision. It’s fine to volunteer for LPS if members are required to fulfil agreed LPS roles.
Collective action is something that employees may collectively choose to do when seeking to gain collective benefit. Decisions on strike action are made collectively through the democratic process of voting. If we want the benefits of the collective, we must support that.
Note that the only employees who can lawfully strike are those who are covered by the collective agreement being bargained for i.e. are members of ASMS covered by the Te Whatu Ora – ASMS SECA.
What do I say to patients who are impacted, and who have already been waiting a long time to access care?
We are sorry that our hospital is not properly staffed. We are sorry that you are having to wait longer for care. We are working as hard as we can to achieve changes that will increase staffing levels and benefit more patients in the long run.