Trudy Simpson, Staff ReporterFOUR MORE Government-paid medical technologists have been summoned to court to answer charges of breaching the Labour and Industrial Relations Act (LRIDA), by going on strike in January.
According to hospital sources and the union representing the technologists, the Union of Technical, Administrative and Supervisory Personnel (UTASP), court summonses were served yesterday on the four who work at the Spanish Town Hospital in St. Catherine.
The court summonses request that the four appear in the Spanish Town Resident Magistrate's Court on Wednesday, March 12, 2003. Indications are that summonses will also be served on technologists at the Cornwall Regional Hospital in Montego Bay, St. James.
The four join about 33 medical technologists from Kingston and St. Andrew who were taken to the Half-Way Tree RM Court on February 24 to answer similar charges. The 33, who may also face penalties for ignoring a back-to-work order from the Industrial Disputes Tribunal (IDT), are scheduled to return to court on March 27, 2003.
The penalty for breaching the IDT's back-to-work order carries a maximum fine of $50,000 or imprisonment, plus $2,000 for each day that the strike lasted.
Several of the more than 80 public service medical technologists took industrial action twice in January after the Government rejected their claim that they were entitled to the same pay as Government scientific officers, who they said, earned more than technologists although they did the similar duties.
The salaries of scientific officers start at $700,000 per annum, compared to the medical technologists' starting rate of $463,000 per year.
The technologists also claimed that a 1998 reclassification of employees in the health sector created an anomaly which has been used as justification to raise the salaries of other groups and that their salaries should also be adjusted.
The strike occurred after several meetings between union representatives and officials from the Ministries of Health and Labour and Social Security failed to resolve the issue.
The Government had referred the matter to the Industrial Disputes Tribunal (IDT), which issued back-to-work order which the medical technologists defied. Horace Dalley, the Minister of Labour and Social Security, had warned then that it was illegal for the technologists to continue their industrial action in light of the back to work order issued by the IDT.
In the meantime, chief union delegate at UTASP, Leeford Bennett said that Government and public service medical technologists are to continue stating their cases on the parity issue to the IDT on Monday.
Mr. Bennett said that yesterday's scheduled IDT sitting did not produce much as the Government side, represented by the Attorney-General's Office, said that they had received their brief on the issue on Thursday and so did not have enough time to prepare.
A sitting set for Monday was pushed to yesterday because of a clash between the court and IDT hearing dates. Deliberations are also expected to continue on Tuesday, March 4.
Corporate Area medical technologists are hoping that the Tribunal will make a ruling on the parity issue by March 27, when the medical technologists are scheduled to return to court.
The strike affected services at several major public hospitals, resulting in postponement of surgeries and handling of emergencies.
Among them were the Bustamante Children's, the National Chest, the Kingston Public and Victoria Jubilee hospitals as well as the National Public Health Laboratory and the National Blood Transfusion Service (Blood Bank).
