On September 23, nurses at Linden protested over several issues against the Health Ministry, including late payment of their salaries, but mainly that they were not being paid “risk allowance” for dealing with patients who might have been infected with the COVID-19 virus. Two days later, they were joined by their colleagues in Georgetown Public Hospital and West Demerara Hospital with escalated demands of a 50 per cent increase in salaries, risk allowances, pension, gratuities, and other benefits.
It was clear that these actions were coordinated, and this was confirmed on September 29 when the protesting nurses in front of Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) were joined by several A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) Members of Parliament (MPs) as well as officials of the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU). By then, the Health Ministry had already pointed out that the Budget, which had been just approved in the National Assembly, included $150 million for increased benefits for health-care workers. The People’s National Congress (PNC) MPs had to have been aware of this allocation. The Health Ministry’s Permanent Secretary also warned: “Please note that the Ministry takes these unauthorised industrial actions seriously, and members of staff who have engaged in such activity will be dealt with according to the Public Service rules and regulations.” More pointedly, the Human Resources Officer of the GPHC urged the nurses to resume their jobs since failure to do so “will result in disciplinary action(s) being initiated”.
Most pertinently, the “Essential Workers Act” defined them as “essential workers” who have to bring any grievance to the attention of the Ministry, which would then trigger the mechanisms of conciliation, mediation, arbitration and finally a specially-appointed Tribunal to deal with the grievances. The leader of the GPSU, Patrick Yarde, however, escalated matters when he threatened a full strike of all health workers by Tuesday, October 6 if their demands were not met. Even as the GPHC indicated that it was making provisions for “the crisis” that would be precipitated in the event of a full strike, matters took an even more ominous turn when on Friday, October 2, the night-shift nurses of the GPHC Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CICU) and the Accident and Emergency Unit (A&E) called in “sick”, leaving critically-ill patients unattended with only the “on-call” doctors in attendance.
Against this background, the Attorney General dispatched a letter to GPSU President Yarde, declaring: “…unless these protest actions cease immediately and the procedures outlined by the law are invoked, the Government will have no alternative but to consider certain options, including but not limited to, the institution of criminal charges, dismissal, termination of contracts of employment, suspension of the collective labour agreement with the GPSU and the suspension of the deduction of Union dues for and on behalf of the Union.”
The Public Service Minister Sonia Parag entered the fray and stressed the politicisation of the issue by noting that even though the nurses had made their demands to the APNU/Alliance For Change (AFC) Government months ago, “There was no protest action, that is what surprises me so today, because at that time when that was flatly refused, no action was taken whatsoever, no threats were made either. I find it strange that protest action is being brought now by the nurses.”
In a letter to the press, former Finance Minister Winston Jordan has now explicitly conceded the Minister’s point when he admitted that he had personally initiated discussions with Public Health Minister Volda Lawrence as far back as last April to provide data on the quantum and details of relief needed to deal with the nurses’ claims. Yet between April 4 and August 2, the nurses and the GPSU did not even initiate the grievance procedure, much less take strike action.
It is the position of this newspaper that the remuneration package of health workers – including risk allowance during the COVID-19 pandemic – and not just for nurses, has to be re-examined. However, this process cannot proceed when the GPSU is holding a gun to the Government’s head.
