DLP calls on Government to address nurses’ grievances

The Democratic Labour Party has broken its silence on the ongoing strike by nurses represented by the Unity Workers Union.

The party’s spokesman on health, Andre Worrell said Prime Minister Mia Mottley’s intervention on the matter was “unfortunate” and has “thrown fuel on the fire when the matter needs to be quickly resolved.”

The DLP is urging the government to work to quickly address the concerns of the nurses in good faith and show the nursing profession the level of respect it rightly deserves.

Below is the full text of the  statement:

Respect the Nurses.

The unfortunate intervention by the Prime Minister in the strike by the Unity Workers Union nurses has thrown fuel on the fire when the matter needs to be quickly resolved.  The nurses striked over long-standing issues which were made even more perplexing as a result of the tremendous burden which the healthcare sector has been under as a result of the COVID surge.  The safe zones and vaccine mandate may be the catalyst for the strike, however, more pressing issues are on the card.  Instead of addressing these issues the Prime Minister focused on undermining the character of the striking workers and the lone Union which saw it fit to take a stand for the rights of workers in Barbados.

The nurses made it clear that the vaccines alone will not make their work environment safe and that other long-standing issues needed to be addressed.  Among these are the payment of Hazard pay and allocation of adequate  PPE to nurses including those at the Polyclinics and not just the ones at the isolation centres.  Other critical issues include the overall safety of the working environment as well as the cleanliness of the working environment with increasing incidents of bed bugs in the facilities.  The nurses should be heard and negotiated with in a fair and cordial manner.

The nurses are a critical part of the healthcare delivery in Barbados and the profession should be respected.  As the country continues to be in a drawn out COVID  surge any unnecessary strain on our health care professionals should be avoided.

The Ministry of Health has completely compromised the implementation of the safe zones at the hospital.  The number of memos and letters which have been circulating and latter withdrawn shows that this administration is out of its depth and struggling to get it right.

From all accounts, the central part of the problem is that this administration is seeking to impose employer vaccine mandates disguised as so called “safe zones”.   If that is their intention,  they should be upfront with the workers and people of Barbados.

The Democratic Labour Party urges the government to work quickly to address the concerns of the nurses in good faith and show the nursing profession the level of respect it rightly deserves.

Andre Worrell

DLP Spokes Person for Health, Water and Sanitation