2 Apr 2011

PNG doctors' union leaders arrested following illegal strike ruling

10:43 am on 2 April 2011

The secretary of the Papua New Guinea Department of Personnel Management says a nationwide doctors strike has finished and the leaders of the doctors' union will spend the weekend in police custody.

Nearly 500 members of the Papua New Guinea Doctors' Association went on strike a week ago over demands for better salaries and other allowances.

But John Kali says the National Court has now ruled that the strike was illegal because the association didn't follow the correct process for taking industrial action.

He says the court had ordered and restrained the doctors from striking.

"However the doctors went on and defied the court orders and as a consequence they have now been charged with contempt of court and I've just been advised that the police have been instructed to arrest the leaders of the national doctors union."

John Kali says the strike didn't appear to have much of an impact on the public.