9 Aug 2007

Fiji nurses more likely to go overseas for work, says Association head

8:03 pm on 9 August 2007

The general secretary of the Fiji Nurses Association, Kuini Lutua, says more nurses are likely to look for work overseas after their 16-day strike action was called off on Thursday.

The nurses will go back to work tomorrow after failing to sway the interim government to restore the five-percent they cut from public sector wages earlier this year.

Ms Lutua says the nurses will seek redress through the courts where they are likely to contend that their constitutional rights were denied by the government's refusal to send the dispute to arbitration.

She says the senior nurses particularly will now move on to greener pastures.

"One of the strategies or contingencies that the Association had looked at before the industrial action are the retention strategies that we must maintain is to always fight for the retention and improvement of salary conditions for the nurses. And that was agreed to last year in the partnership agreement that we had signed with the Qarase Government but unfortunately that's been taken out now."

Kuini Lutua