Gov't must pay nurses
Published:Friday | March 12, 2010 | 12:00 AM
THE EDITOR, Sir:
I AM very disappointed with the way the nurses of Jamaica are being treated by the Government. I just cannot understand why the nurses were promised, as recently as two months ago, that they would be paid retroactive salaries and now the Government is saying that it will not be able to pay because it is broke. This is unacceptable behaviour from the Government.
Our nurses need to be treated with some level of respect. Why did the Government wait so long to tell the nurses that they could not be paid because of the lack of funds?
The Government spent money sending over 75 councillors to attend a local-government seminar in The Bahamas and still the people of Jamaica are waiting on the Government to reform local government.
Wasted finances
The Government has wasted money on the FINSAC enquiry. The Government has wasted millions of dollars paying over 50 consultants to do nothing. The Government has used poor people's money to bail out a private school. If the Government had any interest in paying our nurses, this would have been done a long time ago.
As Jamaicans, we need to stand in solidarity with the nurses and we must insist that the Government pays this retroactive money to our hard-working nurses as soon as possible.
I am, etc.,
WAYNE SIMMONDS