The two-day strike that had previously been announced by radiographers has been called off after District Health Boards were able to reach a consensus with the striking personnel, just in the nick of time. If an accord would not have been made between the two, the strike would have meant unavailability of a 1000 members of staff.

If the industrial action would have been taken by the DHB staff, radiographers would not have been available after 7AM today. The industrial action that had been called by the radiographers was in reply to the withdrawal of their pay offer by the DHB last month.

The fear of an industrial action was so immense that surgeries for spinal and cardiac patients in Wellington Hospital were postponed.

The current situation has been cause after radiographers were offered an increase in pay of 1%, which did not include surplus. According to the demands made by radiographers, apart from an increase in pay, they also wanted backdated pay and time off work to pursue further studies as well.

Prior to this incident, union members at all DHBs had walked off work for 24 hours in protest of the current situation. The announcement regarding the withdrawal of the strike was announced by the radiographers union, yesterday after DHBs agreed to get back on the negotiating table to discuss a possible solution.