Pay Parity for Private Laboratory

The member's message is simple "same work, same pay". APEX has raised a claim for pay parity in each set of bargaining to rectify significant wage rate disadvantage.

How important are Laboratory Workers to NZ’s health system?

Without them, everything falls apart. Watch (and also share!) this short video, to understand how vitally important this highly trained, hardworking and often invisible workforce is to NZ’s healthcare service.

Press Releases

The geography of privatisation

A patient’s blood sample shouldn’t have to cross half the North Island to get an answer.

 

This map shows the reality of how Gisborne Hospital laboratory samples are currently processed: flown or driven hundreds of kilometres away, vulnerable to weather, breakdowns, and delays along the way.

 

When planes are grounded and courier vans break down, diagnostics don’t just slow down — patient care does. These aren’t abstract logistics issues; they translate directly into longer waits for results, delayed treatment decisions, and avoidable risk for patients in Tairāwhiti.

 

Geography shouldn’t determine the quality or timeliness of healthcare. Neither should privatisation.

 


850 Medical Laboratory Workers Notify Looming Week of Rolling Strikes

On March 6 2025, APEX issued strike notices on behalf of 850 medical laboratory scientists and technicians to corporate providers Awanui, Pathlab, and Medlab. The rolling strikes, spanning seven days from 22 March, will impact at least 123,000 patient tests and cut off medical laboratory services for at least 72 hours in over 70% of New Zealand’s towns and cities, including Tauranga, Rotorua, Palmerston North, Gisborne, Wellington, and Dunedin. The action follows a two-day strike over Waitangi weekend, which led to only modest progress in closing the 30% pay gap between these workers and their Te Whatu Ora-employed counterparts.

View Press release

Picket photos

Our private laboratory workers have been out on the picket lines across the country, kia kaha!

February and March 2025 picket lines.

Media Round-up