THE QUEEN ELIZABETH Hospital (QEH) has until the weekend to meet with the National Union of Public Workers and until April 15 to draft appointment letters.
If it does not, NUPW general secretary Dennis Clarke said industrial action would be called.
Clarke yesterday called an outdoor meeting, attended by members of various departments, near the back gate of the QEH to discuss issues pertaining to appointments, the removal of sick leave extensions and no-pay leave.
“It is time this country understands what the issues are,” Clarke said. “[The QEH has] been fooling around with the question of appointments too long. Everyone likes to have security of tenure but at the end of the day, they are ‘cherry-picking’ who should be appointed.”
Clarke said he was also “thinking seriously” of taking the issue of replacing the extended sick leave with no-pay leave to the Privy Council should it not be resolved, adding that it appeared these problems stemmed from the QEH’s board of directors.
“The board is causing confusion and wants to micromanage the hospital. It seems the [chief executive officer] is there to deal with technical matters while the board seems to deal with human resources . . . [who are] a bunch of neophytes who do not understand industrial relations,” he said.
Clarke said he was aware of certain members of staff taking advantage of the leave system but added that making the majority of staff pay for a few individuals was wrong and would not be tolerated.
Bad apples
“Instead of removing the bad apples, they are penalizing everyone. This is the only Government institution where this sort of thing happens and it is madness.
“We will put a stop to it because it will affect everyone in the hospital should we allow it to gain root.”
In addition, he said even if the hospital management wanted to raise the issue of the abuse of leave, he could easily counter with the cleanliness of the hospital.
“They are talking about sick leave but not the dirty building or the ‘army’ of rats and other vermin. These are conditions where in certain circumstances can make you sick, so if [the board] wants to deal with issues, then [first] clean the hospital.
“We won’t all-out strike, but we will demonstrate with placards [if necessary] as we will ensure the patients are taken care of, but we have to also show the board they cannot operate this way and to allow the CEO and the HR manager to do their jobs,” he said.
Some of the other issues raised by staff included the lack of hazard pay for the incinerator attendant for more than 15 years; using “incopads” as reusable diapers instead of using disposable diapers and overdrawn salary deductions.
When contacted, CEO Dr Dexter James said as he was not privy to what was said at the meeting he could not comment.