Back free movement but improve pay, perks here – Browne

Government backbencher and ex-health minister Dr Sonia Browne said Tuesday there is still a fundamental need to provide fair compensation and incentives to nurses and other essential professions to keep them from pursuing better career opportunities overseas.

Speaking in the House during Tuesday’s debate on the Caribbean Community (Movement of Skilled Nationals) (Amendment) Bill, Dr Browne, a physician, stressed that while she fully supported the bill’s goal of making it easier for CARICOM skilled nationals to work here, she also stated that there was a need to provide fair working conditions for professionals, particularly nurses.

Dr Browne, who resigned from the ministry in January, said some effort has been made to help compensate nurses for their crucial job but declared that their pay levels fall well short of what medical professionals get elsewhere.

She said: “We need to offer nurses incentives; yes I know that there have been recent increases in salaries which I am quite grateful for, but compared to some other jurisdictions I know for a fact, the salaries are way better. The privileges – they are given housing, they are given care for their children, we are still way behind on that, especially nurses that work in shift systems late at night, we have issues caring for their children. Other jurisdictions offer this.

“Insurance policies, health care, other jurisdictions offer this.”

She also stated that while there was some effort to provide low-cost housing solutions to nurses through housing fairs held in conjunction with the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, mortgage prices for these homes remained far above what most nurses could afford.

“The hospital we had a housing fair for nurses, which was a great initiative,” said Dr Browne, “but I later came to learn that a lot of the nurses could not actually afford – single parents or just single – could not afford to pay for these houses. At least not by mortgage. So it was not very helpful.

“One hundred and fifty thousand dollars may sound easy, but for a janitor or maid, and I know of one personally – she spends $800 a month for rent, but does not qualify for a mortgage. Something is wrong with that. If she is loyal in paying her rent every month for years, there is no reason that we can not individually look at cases and offer [fair] mortgages.”

She also suggested that salaries and perks offered to police officers need attention.

“If I leave here now and walk outside into the real world, police officers are constantly complaining about salaries, constantly complaining about perks,” said Dr Browne. “Salaries are low, insurance is not offered especially in an environment where we are not doing our best in terms of crime prevention. Police officers need to be considered.”

The MP for St Philip North also stated that promotions in the public sector needed to be reconsidered, as certain unjust practices may push experienced personnel out from the service in search of greater opportunities that would appropriately recompense them for their expertise.

“Promotions are happening, you could have 25. 30, 40 years experience in whatever areas, and we had situations, not only in teaching, but other areas of government, where someone has the experience, not coming out of UWI, and they are asked to have a UWI graduate who will now earn about $2 000 more depending on the profession, and a slap in the face by asked them to train these people.

“These are things we have to look at. You are talking about freedom of movement, but yet we still have to protect our workforce.”
(SB)