| Injunction filed to stop doctors' protest |
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| Friday, 17 April 2009 | |
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Lawyers representing the Ministry applied for a 28 day Supreme Court injunction Friday afternoon intended to prevent members of the Jamaica Medical Doctors Association from taking industrial action.
Labour Minister Pearnel Charles said the intervention of the high court was necessary because any action to disrupt the health services would be adverse to the national interest. The Minister said the decision to take out the injunction will safeguard against a collapse of the public health system due to the actions of junior doctors. Irate junior doctors vowed not to work outside their regular work hours because of unresolved overtime wage issues with government negotiators. Their protest action by the island's more than 800 junior doctors began just after 4 o'clock this afternoon. No money in the till! Health Minister Ruddy Spencer is maintaining that government does not have the funds to meet the demands of members of the JMDA to pay outstanding allowances.
Despite this, Mr. Spencer said government just cannot scrounge up the funds to pay the doctors the allowances at the centre of the impasse with his ministry. The doctors were paid a 15-percent salary adjustment as part of MOU3 in April of 2008 and the second tranche of the payment was due on April one this year. The rostered duty allowance would cost the government 819 million dollars, while the emergency incentive allowance amounts to 93 million dollars. Both allowances add up to a whopping 912 million. Mr. Spencer says given current conditions finding the money is all but impossible.
“What the government is asking the doctors to do is to hold strain like any other public sector worker for the second tranche of payment which is due on April 1... If we were to pay that it amounts to 912 million dollars which at this time the government can ill afford. We will look at it later on, but in no way shape or form can the government of
“If you are rostered to work there is an allowance. Whether or not you work, that allowance is paid. I think the time is fast coming when the Ministry will have to look at these allowances and formulate a new strategy in dealing with these allowances. Since it is the bone of contention, since we can’t arrive at any agreement, I have instructed the CLO and the Permanent Secretary to look at these allowances and make a proposal to me how we can compensate the doctors when they work additional hours.” said the Health Minister. |
In a move to prevent a collapse of the entire public health system, the Ministry of Labour has secured a court injunction that bars government-paid doctors from curtailing their services.
At a hastily called press conference Friday, a resigned Ruddy Spencer said the doctor's threat to work only the hours stipulated in their contracts poses serious implications for all areas of the health sector.