MPATT waiting to represent doctors

In an interview yesterday, Vice president of MPATT, Dr Rajendra Persad said since the media briefing at the Labour Ministry last month, there has been no change. Montano has told the doctors he was “working on the matter.”

Persad said, “MPATT is looking at a short timetable. We expressed this to the Ministers of Health and Labour on the same day as the media briefing. We did not give a deadline.” Asked how long MPATT would give the Labour Minister, Persad said MPATT did not want the matter “to drag on for months.”

Montano called a meeting with the doctors on March 24 to prevent Regional Health Authority doctors from stopping overtime work. The following week he met with the Chairman of the Registration Recognition and Certification Board (RRCB), Clive St Rose to come up with a solution. While maintaining that no political pressure was being exerted on the RRCB, at the media briefing Montano said he and Health Minister John Rahael said they had no problem with MPATT’s objective of representing doctors.

MPATT gave the warning last month after failing to get the RRCB to review its decision on the bargaining units. The RRCB decided the bargaining units for the ERHA last July. Doctors were classified with several other staff members. MPATT has called for its application to be handled fairly.

Persad said anyone looking at the Industrial Relations Act (IRA) to determining bargaining units would see a fair determination would be a bargaining unit comprising only doctors. Based on this, he said MPATT should receive recognition.

“No one reading Section 33 of the Act can determine doctors should be in the same bargaining unit as nursing supervisors, fleet manager, cleaners and telephone operators.”

According to Section 33(1) of the Act, “The Board shall on any application under section 32(2) first determine the bargaining unit it considers appropriate in the circumstances and in so doing the Board shall have regard to (a) the community of interest between the workers and the proposed bargaining unit, including the location and methods and periodicity of payment therefore; (b) the nature and scope of the duties exercised by the workers in the proposed bargaining unit; (c) the views of the employer and the trade union concerned as to the appropriateness of the bargaining unit; (d) the historical development, if any, of collective bargaining in the industry or business to which the bargaining unit belongs; (e) any other matters the Board considers to be conducive to good industrial relations.”