Acting General Secretary of the National Union of Public Workers (NUPW) Wayne Walrond, is warning that industrial action could be on the horizon over the transfer of six nurses from the Geriatric Hospital.
In addition, head of the Unity Workers Union (UWU), Caswell Franklyn, has written a letter to the Ministry of Health demanding that the transfers be rescinded.
The six nurses were said to have spoken up last June during the outbreak of scabies at the hospital. On Monday, they were transferred to the St Lucy District Hospital and the St Philip District Hospital.
The two trade union bosses are crying victimisation, noting that the six were the only nurses to be affected.
Franklyn told the DAILY NATION he wrote a letter to Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health, Wayne Marshall, yesterday telling him he had no power to transfer the nurses and demanding that he rescind the “unlawful orders”.
Likewise,Walrond slammed the transfer process calling it a “vicious act of victimisation”. He also hinted that there could be industrial action, pointing out that the transfer effectively means that those six nurses would not be included among those slated to occupy the new Geriatric Hospital at Waterford, St Michael.
Last night, Marshall said he was preparing a response.
Franklyn said after a scabies outbreak on Ward 8B, the nurses protested when the infected patients were transferred to 6B with the non-infected patients.
“So nurses protested that and refused to work in the situation that was dangerous to their health. Now, the new thing is that they have transferred all six of those nurses who refused to work in those dangerous conditions,” he said.
Revealing that he received information the nurses had been transferred by the Permanent Secretary, Franklyn stated that official did “not have authority to transfer any nurses”.
“They are victimising these nurses because those nurses stood up for their rights. Under the Safety & Health At Work Act you can refuse to work in dangerous conditions,” he said, adding that there was a ward which was clear where the infected patients could have been accommodated.
In his letter to the PS, Franklyn stated: “It is my understanding that the transfers were ordered by the Permanent Secretary, purportedly using power delegated to him by virtue of the Delegation of Functions (Public and Police Services) (Miscellaneous Provisions) Order, 1974.
“Your action reeks of retaliation, victimisation and abuse of power that you think or were misled to think that you have…” He added: “This is particularly troubling sinceyou seem not to be aware that the 1974 order had been superseded by the Constitution (Delegation of Functions – Administrative, General and Professional Service, Teaching Service and Protective Services) (Miscellaneous Provisions) Order, 2019. That order was published, in the Official Gazette, as S.I. 2019 No. 43 on July 25, 2019. What is even more troubling, is that neither the 1974 order nor the current one has ever given the Permanent Secretary power to transfer a single nurse.”
Walrond said the nurses were verbally informed of the transfer and he attended a meeting with Deputy Permanent Secretary Wayne Webster because the PS was out of the island. He said he was informed that there was no evidence of victimisation but has rejected the assertion.
Victimisation
“The NUPW submit that it was victimisation, it was a vicious act of victimisation,” he said, pointing out that he had also rejected arguments that the St Philip and St Lucy District Hospitals were lacking in nurses.
Walrond charged that the Geriatric Hospital was so understaffed that nurses were now doing
double shifts.
He said one of the nurses going to St Lucy lived in St Michael and questioned how the Ministry of Health had made accommodations for nurses from Ghana to be assigned near to their residences but treated the Barbadians with cruelty.
“Don’t be surprised if workers come together in solidarity to show their discontentment over this, how this transfer is affecting, circumstances that are questionable,” he said, as he too, questioned why only the six nurses who spoke out were transferred.
“I know the workers are prepared at any time to demonstrate.”
He said the union had been advised that there would be no disruption at the Geriatric Hospital in order to keep staff in a state of preparedness for the move into the facility. (MB)
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