... Nurses cry foul over missing salary deductions
Published:Wednesday | April 23, 2014 | 12:00 AM
Gary Spaulding, Senior Staff Reporter
The lives of countless nurses and other public health workers have been plunged into disarray as it appears salary deductions have not been paid over by the South East Regional Health Authority (SERHA) to meet their financial obligations.
A response has not been forthcoming from Horace Dalley, the minister with portfolio responsibility for the public sector, even as nurses complain that they are worried that the motor vehicles they use to take them to work are under threat of being repossessed.
Nurses aligned to SERHA complain that they feel abandoned and neglected by both the Government and unions as their lives hang precariously in the balance, with insurance policies lapsing, motor vehicles being repossessed by financial institutions, and mortgage arrears piling up.
After waiting for more than an hour to speak with Dalley at Gordon House yesterday afternoon, a subsequent text message failed to elicit a response from the minister.
Money withdrawn from pay
Nurses with whom The Gleaner spoke said that, although the funds to finance their obligations are taken out of their pay, the deductions are not forwarded to financial institutions.
"My mortgage is in arrears. How can this be when it has always been salary-deducted? How can they be so heartless?" asked one Corporate Area nurse.
Another nurse told The Gleaner that her statement from a financial institution had reflected worrying increases in arrears.
"They told us not to worry as they have entered into an understanding with the National Housing Trust (NHT), but the arrears keep piling up," she said.
Added the nurse: "They freeze our wages for an unmerciful seven years and have the gall to tell us to stay the course while they drive their big cars, even as our small ones are being seized in the name of the International Monetary Fund.