And in other news, similar to the joint unions and the UBFSU, the KHMH workers union has been rallying against GOB for pension that they believe is owed to them from the period of 2001-2017. They previously took action in the form of sickouts but upon filing a dispute to the labor department, they agreed to a 21 days notice without any industrial action. But that 21 days comes to an end very soon and so we asked the Minister of Health for a comment on the situation today.
Kevin Bernard, Minister of Health & Wellness
"Now the whole issue is those years that lapsed between 2001 and 2017 in terms of what benefits do these persons have for those years that they loss while being employed some of them have already retired and so yes I agree there has to be some fort of compensation but that is between the authority and the union. The government of course is the intermediary in all of this because KHMH is a statutory body and at the ministry we only regulate the functions of the KHMH however the authority has its own mandate. Government subsidises those services at KHMH in terms of providing a subvention and I am happy we have seen where cool heads have been able to sit down and renegotiate I know that the union wrote a counter proposal the authority felt that it had to go to labor because there were steps taken, industrial action that was taken that had to be looked at and so the labor commissioner had to step in, the ministry of labor had to step in and so this is now at the stage where negotiations are taking place and as I said they made a counter proposal to what was being offered by the negotiating team and I am hoping that within 2 weeks when they come back."
"And so I am hoping that by the end of these next 2 weeks that we could come to some amicable solution and find a final rest to this matter that has been lingering for years and years and we are now trying to solve this problem and make sure that from here on it is smooth sailing thats all."
