Petrina Francis, Staff Reporter
Executive Members of the Nurses' Association of Jamaica (NAJ) and senior officials of the Ministries of Labour and Social Security, Health and Finance are to resume salary negotiations today.
Ahead of that meeting, which is scheduled for 2:00 p.m., the NAJ is to meet with its members at 10:00 a.m. to update them on salary negotiations with the Labour Ministry.
Several nurses staged a two-day sick out last Thursday and Friday, pressing the Government for an improved wage offer. Several hospitals across the island were forced to cancel elective surgeries, discharge stable patients and offer only emergency treatment to the critically ill.
The NAJ and senior officials of the Ministries of Health and Finance were summoned to a meeting at the Labour Ministry last Friday to avert any further industrial action by nurses.
Four-point agreement
A four-point agreement was reached at the meeting which lasted more than eight hours. Some of the agreements were that nurses would resume their duties, negotiations would resume on Monday and would continue under the auspices of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security.
Operations at the island's hospitals returned to normal on Saturday. However, Mrs. Allwood-Anderson told The Gleaner on Saturday that the NAJ did not have the power to instruct nurses to do sessions (work overtime).
"When we don't (do sessions) it is almost a tragedy because sessions run the hospitals," she added.
The NAJ has been at odds with the Government over wages for several months. The association withdrew its membership from the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions (JCTU) to negotiate for salaries and fringe benefits for nurses on its own.
The organisation had given the Government until June 30 to complete a wage and fringe benefits settlement, promote nurses who have been acting in positions for more than six months and provide a scarcity allowance for them.
The Government had offered the nurses 22 per cent over two years for Levels Three and up, and 24 per cent over two years for Levels One and Two nurses. However, the nurses are requesting an 80 per cent pay increase in the first year and 40 per cent in the second year.
When their request was not met, scores of nurses protested and stayed off the job earlier this month. The Gleaner understands that the Finance Ministry then offered the nurses increases in session fees and uniform allowance. This was, however, rejected by the NAJ.
