Court staff in Tauranga will join fellow colleagues around the country in taking strike action today.

PSA members at the Ministry of Justice are taking strike action between 10.30am and 12.30pm in a move to highlight 'fundamental pay issues”.

'Eleventh hour meetings were held between the PSA Bargaining Team and Ministry of Justice to reach a resolution but no movement on fundamental pay issues was offered,” says PSA National Secretary Glenn Barclay.

'Ministry of Justice members work hard to keep the justice system working and we are seeking an outcome that values all staff and ensures they are reasonably paid – including Court Security Officers, Registry Officers, Victim Advisors, Court Reporters, Family Court Coordinators.”

Glenn says the Ministry's own engagement survey shows that only a third of staff feel valued for the work that they do, with a clear impact on recruitment and retention issues across the Ministry.

'To put this into perspective, the Ministry offered the third lowest average salary in the public sector last year and we believe this is being worsened. Added to that the average public sector gender pay gap is 12 per cent but the Ministry is at 15 per cent - given the number of women employed by the Ministry is about 70 per cent this has a huge negative impact.

Ministry of Justice Chief Executive Andrew Bridgman says courthouses, tribunal offices and public counters will close between 10.30am and 12.30pm.

'The safety of everyone who works and visits New Zealand's courthouses is our highest priority and so we have decided to close courthouses and tribunal offices during the duration of the industrial action.”

Andrew says bargaining on a new contract with the PSA has been underway for several months.

'The Ministry remains open and committed to reaching a negotiated settlement and we're ready to meet at any time.”

The Ministry has offered a five per cent increase over two years, in line with other agreements in the Public Sector. The PSA has requested an increase of more than 13 per cent.

Apart from the Auckland High Court, which is hearing a limited number of matters, all High Court and District Court registries will be closed to the public from 10.30am to 12.30pm. All public counters in these courts will be closed.

All District Court matters set down for the morning will be rescheduled to future dates. The court will be contacting defendants, witnesses and other parties with the new hearing dates and times.

Arrest courts will operate at 14 District Courts between 9am and 10.15am to deal with overnight arrests.

All Disputes Tribunal and Tenancy Tribunal hearings will be adjourned until the afternoon. Public counters will be closed.

District and High Courts begin hearing matters from 2:15pm.

The Ministry's Contact Centre (0800 268 787) will continue to operate, however, there will be delays in answering calls and receiving responses to calls placed to offices.