The PNG Trade Union Congress (PNGTUC) says it is mischievous and misleading to label the sit-in protest by the members of the PNG Nurses Association as illegal.
PNGTUC Assistant General Secretary, Anton Sekum said there is no provision in the Industrial Organization Act that requires the Industrial Registrar’s prior consent for a sit-in protest to go ahead.
“A sit-in protest can happen any time except for strike actions which will require the Industrial Registrar to oversee the conduct of the secret ballot.
“Quick fact checks by the DPM Secretary, Tais Sansan and media reports on her misleading headline about the legality of the Nurses sit-in process would have done all parties justice.
He said to come out publicly and declare that a sit-in protest is illegal against a law that does not exist in the Industrial Organization Act, is nothing but demonstration of mischievous behaviour by the good Secretary.
“Stop manufacturing excuses to cover up for the failures of the DPM, NDoH and the State to honour the employer side of the deal.”
Mr Sekum said: “The MoA was signed in August 2020, for implementation effective 01st of January, 2021. The poor nurses will lose one year of their three years duty related allowance package. There is no guarantee these allowances will be paid with next year’s allowances given the squeeze on the national budget.”
He said this leads us to question of what happened to the K5.6 billion economic stimulus package,” he asked.
“This COVID-19 Budget allocated K0.5 billion to health, police and defence forces with an extra allocation of K175 million to health, an amount which was nearly four times the initial request for health funding of K45.5 million.”
“Two things must happen here. The government must find money to pay the nurses allowances for 2021, before we roll into 2022. Secondly, The Prime Minister must sack the Treasurer and the incompetent Health Minister for mismanaging the health budget,” an irate Mr Sekum said.
He added that the PNGTUC is appealing on behalf of its affiliate the PNG Nurses Association for the DPM to honour the agreement and pay the nurses their dues.
“Let’s put this case to rest. To use petty excuses like the non-compliance argument with no basis will add more fuel to the fire.”