THE MINISTRIES of Health, Finance and Planning and public sector medical technologists have failed to resolve their party dispute and will return empty-handed to the Industrial Disputes Tribunal (IDT) tomorrow.
The IDT had given the groups one more week to iron out their differences and come up with a resolution of the claim by the medical technologists that they are entitled to the same pay as government scientific officers doing similar duties. The Government has rejected the claim.
Discussions came to standstill yesterday, the final meeting planned before they report back to the IDT, with both sides, particularly, the union representing the medical technologists and the Ministry of Health, accusing each other of not wanting to compromise.
"We're going back to the IDT. I am disappointed. The Ministry of Health seems not to want to compromise and settle this manner," said Leford Bennett, chief union delegate at the Union of Technical, Administrative and Supervisory Personnel (UTASP).
But Minister of Health, John Junor, denied Mr Bennett's statement, stating that it was the medical technologists and their union which were prolonging the issue.
"Their position has become even more stringent," Mr Junor told The Gleaner. He said that UTASP sent the ministry a letter yesterday demanding an increase of 42 per cent across the board.
"I thought we were getting somewhere, but a letter from UTASP put that out of my mind," Mr Junor said. "Their position has not changed. On the basis of an anomaly involving three people, 104 persons must get a 42 per cent pay increase without any evaluation to see whether the complexity of the job has changed. There is no way they can get that."
He said that to agree to the medical technologists' terms would also set a precedent which would see the Ministry paying all personnel reclassified within the paramedical group, such as radiographers, physiotherapists and pharmacists, which the Ministry cannot afford.
Mr Bennett later denied claims that medical technologists were demanding 42 per cent. He said the union was responding to Mr. Junor's request, at a meeting between the parties last week, for a proposal for compensation which would not involve other reclassified groups.
He said that the 42 per cent was arrived at based data from the 1998
reclassification which showed that groups such as scientific officers were being paid between 42 per cent and 52.2 per cent higher than medical technologists.
