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Daily-rated workers from facilities run by the North West Regional Health Authority walked off the job on Thursday, citing a list of grievances, the foremost of which was failure to pay overtime to shift workers scheduled on weekends.
Speaking to workers and media at the NUGFW Hall on Henry Street, president general James Lambert said the issue that broke the camel’s back was the roster for overtime at St Ann’s Hospital.
“Over the years, they have been working the workers flat time on Saturdays and Sundays, and indicating compensatory time off.
"The union has stopped compensatory time off. There is nothing in the collective agreement that says you work a worker outside of the 40-hour week and then you give them compensatory time off.
"We are aware as a union, that since 2009/2010, because you can’t leave sick people unattended in a hospital, workers have to work Saturdays and Sundays, so they are considered shift workers."
He said the authority has been paying a shift premium and workers were receiving $9 an hour, but were being given time off on Saturdays and Sundays.
“When you are a shift worker, the policy in TT is quite clear: you cannot work daily-rated workers four Saturdays and four Sundays in the month. You make a seven-day roster in which two days in the week would be time off if you didn’t work Saturday and Sunday. If you have worked right through, Saturday and Sunday must be overtime.
"What the management has been doing, is giving time off on Saturday and Sunday.
“For the seven-day roster that has been made, you must have at least two days off, because the Industrial Relations Act provides it is a 40-hour week, and when you work shift workers Saturday and Sunday, it alternates. There is a Saturday and Sunday that must be considered a regular and ordinary working day, and the following Saturday and Sunday must be considered overtime. So you work two Saturdays and two Sundays in the month as regular days, and the rest must be considered overtime.”
Lambert said he met with the CEO and it was agreed that the roster would be scheduled in this way, but when the roster was released this morning, this was not taken into account, leading to workers walking off the job.
The workers were from the kitchen, laundry, environmental and engineering sections of the St Ann’s Hospital, the Port of Spain General Hospital, Mt Hope (where the laundry department for the NWRHA is located), and the St James Medical Complex.
Lambert said the workers had made sure to carry out their assigned tasks before leaving their facilities so no patients had been neglected.
Lambert also accused the NWRHA’s management of delaying the negotiation process for daily-paid workers, as the authority is responsible for co-ordinating the other RHAs to come to the negotiation table.
He said the meal allowance had remained the same since 2013 and there had been no increase in benefits in the NWRHA, unlike the other RHAs.
“We have something called UniMed insurance, where central and local government and the THA would have updated all the present benefits, but NWRHA remains the same. We have written to them, held meetings – nothing is happening on behalf of the workers.”
A meeting was scheduled with NWRHA CEO Anthony Blake for later in the day.
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