Bartholomew Chan, Gleaner Writer
Edith Allwood-Anderson (left), president of the Nurses Association of Jamaica (NAJ), arrives at the NAJ's Arnold Road, Central Kingston headquarters yesterday for a meeting to discuss the nurses' position on the latest Memorandum of Understanding being proposed by Government. - RUDOLPH BROWN/CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER
PRESIDENT OF the Nurses Association of Jamaica (NAJ), Edith Allwood-Anderson, yesterday said the NAJ would continue to disassociate itself from any Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which has not been properly negotiated with her union.
Mrs. Allwood Anderson was speaking with the media after a two-and-a-half-hour closed door extraordinary general meeting of NAJ members at their Arnold Road, Central Kingston headquarters.
The emergency meeting was called to "discuss the new MoU (being proposed by the Government) and its implications for nursing and nurses," Mrs. Allwood-Anderson said. She described the mood of the nurses as "serious and reflective".
NURSES DISSATISFIED
She blasted the Ministry of Finance and Planning and the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions (JCTU), stating that nurses are "dissatisfied and angry" with the current situation of pay and nurse to patient ratio.
The NAJ president told The Gleaner that the exodus of nurses to 'greener pastures' would only cease when the Finance Ministry "improve nurses' pay".
Mrs. Allwood-Anderson said the NAJ felt "undermined by the JCTU" which is in talks with the Finance Ministry on the possibilities for a new MoU. She has maintained that unless its concerns with the terms of a new draft proposal are addressed, it will not sign another MoU. She is insisting that the Government increase salaries and include additional benefits for nurses. Only then, she said, would the NAJ consider signing a new MoU.
Representatives of the JCTU and the Ministry of Finance are to meet again on Friday in a bid to have a new MoU in place. The previous MoU between Government and public sector employees expired on March 31.
