Health workers vote for sit-in strike

A total of 226 health support workers at the Angau Memorial Hospital in Lae voted last Friday in a secret ballot for a sit-in strike over their log of claims to the Department of Personnel Management.
President of the Lae branch of PNG Health Support Workers Association (PNGHSWA) John Tioti said the decision was in support of staff of other hospitals in the country over the non-payment of a motivation package presented to the DPM as compensation for the increased workload of health support workers.
Tioti stated that the Angau Memorial Hospital was the second largest referral hospital in the country that served a population of more than 540,000 people from all regions of the country.
In order to maintain the quality of services at the hospital a motivational package was proposed to compensate the workers but no response was forthcoming since 2014 when the claim was submitted.
He said the ancillary staff played an important role in supporting the flow of medical services in hospitals and the Government through the DPM should meet their claims.
“The secret ballot was held last Friday by the group and the results will be submitted to the head office in Port Moresby to determine a sit-in strike while a circular from Port Moresby has been issued to the CEO informing him of the ballot which he is currently aware of,” said Tioti.
Services that will be disrupted at the hospital include all catering services, cleaning services, patient pottering, sanitary and waste management, mortuary services, store and purchasing, faculty and maintenance services, accounts and human recourses system that assist in the delivery of health services alongside practitioners at hospitals.
The secret ballot is organised by officers from the Electoral Commission and a decision on the results of the vote will be known this week.