Midwives accuse ministers of interference in pay talks

The midwives union has accused four government ministers of interfering in its pay negotiations with district health boards. After two weeks of intermittent daily strikes, it's now balloting its members on whether to take more disruptive industrial action. The union says the ministers vetoed a better offer the DHBs had intended to put forward. But, a spokesman for the boards, Jim Green, says the ministers operate through the Ministerial Oversight Group and that group had not met.