Nurses in Western join sit-in protest

SINCE last Monday nurses in Western have been on a sit-in protest regarding the delay in implementation of the 2021-2023 awards an official says.
Papua New Guinea Nurses Association (PNGNA) Western branch president Sr Dorothy Dire said 62 of her nurses from the PNGNA were standing in solidarity with other nurses in PNG.
“Since Monday, we have been participating in the sit-in protest supporting our national executives. Today (Friday) marks the fifth day,” Sr Dire said.
“We are still standing firm with our national executives.
“We want the Government to respond to us on the implementation of our awards.
“We have previous awards that have not been implemented and those issues were never attended to until we had these new awards.”
She said with the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, the medical insurance and life insurance were important for nurses.
“For Western, we have 62 members of the association,” she said.
“Western is an important province. We share two international borders and our increment is important.
“The Government needs to seriously look into this and get us insured by making sure that our award is implemented.”
Sr Dire said no nurses had died of the Covid-19 in Daru.
However, she said 40 hospital staff in Daru had been infected with the Covid-19.
She said of the 40, 22 were nurses.