Rahael diagnoses PSA problems

HEALTH MINISTER John Rahael yesterday said he remains willing to meet with Public Services Association (PSA) president Jennifer Baptiste-Primus. The Minister also said the health sector is not facing a crisis, given last week’s protest action by the PSA and concerns expressed by senior doctors regarding their new contracts. Rahael told Newsday that notwithstanding the fact that Baptiste-Primus said she no longer wants to meet with him, he remains willing to meet with her to discuss whatever concerns her union has. Asked if he believed the health sector was being double-teamed by the PSA and the senior doctors, the Minister did not believe this was the case.

Rahael believed that changes stipulated in the Regional Health Authori-ties (RHA) Amendment Bill 2004 were at the core of the PSA’s actions. The purpose of the Bill, which was laid and pas-sed in the House of Rep-resentatives on March 5, is “to provide for the continuation of the PSA as the certified recognised majority union for em-ployees of the RHAs, including public officers who have either been transferred or seconded to these authorities, for a period of at least two years or until such time as the Association is re-placed by another recognised body.” The Medical Profes-sionals Association of Trinidad and Tobago (MPATT) claims that most of the RHA’s workers prefer it to the PSA but MPATT does not have the authority to bargain collectively for these workers.

According to Rahael, Government has received legal advice which indicates that it would be unconstitutional and illegal to entrench a union upon RHA workers. The Minister said the RHA workers would have to state which union they wish to have as their representative and then the necessary steps would be taken as far as recognition is concerned. Rahael said last week’s PSA protest was a diversionary tactic and even NUGFW president Robert Giuseppi questioned the rationale behind it. He said the protest had nothing to do with him refusing to meet the PSA because he had correspondence to prove this was not the case. On the senior doctors’ negotiations, Rahael said he was optimistic that any problems concerning those talks would be resolved before the end of the month.