QEH talks on today

MEDIATION TALKS are expected to be held at the Labour Department today in an effort to settle a running dispute at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.The National Union of Public Workers and the hospital’s senior managers are expected to sit down for talks to be chaired by the Chief Labour Officer.At the centre of contention is how the hospital hires its temporary workers. The QEH’s management has maintained that there is no right to an appointment in a relief post.The hospital has indicated that “all substitute workers are employed on limited term contracts. This differs from appointed persons, who are permanent QEH employees who have acted in a post other than for a term of years, without prior consideration for appointment to hold the post in which they are acting”.However, the union’s general secretary Dennis Clarke said those people who had been substituting consistently over the years must be given preference.“The bone of contention has to do with the temporary workers who would have been substituting over the last six, seven or more years. When someone goes on sick leave these people come in an work till eventually  there is an opening  and that person will then get the pick,” the union boss stated.The outcome of the talks at the Labour Department could very well determine how the union proceeds, having ended its recent protest action to allow process for an amicable agreement.The union has decided still to push ahead with talks at the QEH’s auditorium this afternoon where all its members at the hospital are scheduled to meet. Those talks will be driven by the outcome of the earlier meeting at the LabourDepartment’s offices at the Government Office complex at Warrens, St Michael. (ES)