Health workers on strike

By LULU MARK
IMPORTANT diagnostic and treatment services in hospitals around the country will be affected after a group of health workers staged a protest over their industrial awards not being implemented since 2012.
Allied Health Workers Association president Simonson Vaieke said more than 470 members of the association staged the sit-in protest yesterday which would continue indefinitely until their demands were met.
Attempts to get a comment from the Health Department and Ministry were unsuccessful yesterday.
Vaieke said the association members were employed in five medical disciplines — radiology, anesthetic, dentistry, physiotherapy and pharmacy.
He said they played critical roles in providing healthcare in hospitals which would be affected by their industrial action.
Vaieke said the Port Moresby General Hospital allied health workers were behind their colleagues around the country in the protest as it was time the Government, through the Health Department, implemented the awards.
“Our colleagues in the provinces are greatly affected by the non-implementation of the awards. The allied health workers stand in solidarity and call on the health authorities to implement the awards,” Vaieke said.
“We had written many letters over the years, but the Health Department was (always) giving us the runaround, hence the decision to (stage the) protest.”
He said the association wanted the department to ensure that the industrial awards were implemented and an agreement signed to ensure that the welfare of the members were secured.