Marvin Blades
Those circumstances surrounding the Chief Pharmacist, and arising from the appointment of Danini Contreras, are among the issues which have been taken before the Minister of Labour. As promised, the PSU has declared the matter an essential services dispute. Also on the table is pharmacy related legislation which has been sitting on the Solicitor-General’s desk for over a year. The PSU says that legislation would clear up the problems cited by Health C.E.O. Peter Allen.
Marvin Blades, President, Public Service Union
Danini Contreras
“On Wednesday, which would be the thirtieth of April, we sent in our letter to the minister informing him of the dispute and part of the dispute in essential service, section eleven specifically states that the minister must be informed of the dispute and from there, it has—based on the piece of legislation—it states that the minister has twenty-one days in which to convene with the parties to look at ways to resolve the issue. If the issue is not resolved within the twenty-one days, the minister can refer the issue to a tribunal. However, it also states in the document that if after twenty-one days that nothing is done to the issue, we the union and its members reserve the right to go to further action. Our members are the association and the association correctly had sent in, in January of 2013, the three legislations including the pharmacist Act and other legislation that they wanted to pass which would solve this very problem that the C.E.O. is claiming that will be solved by the appointment of a director of inspectorate. And it also shows that they gave a reminder in March; however, it still sits on the SOLGEN’s desk and nothing is being done. And I don’t hear anything in regards to the C.E.O. speaking about it or anybody of that matter from the ministry talking about these pieces of legislation that will solve some of these issues and help us to regulate the problems that we have with the pharmaceuticals in this country.”
News Five tried to reach Allen for comment today, but was unsuccessful.
View the full article