By Trudy Simpson, Staff ReporterTHE UNION of Technical, Administrative and Supervisory Personnel (UTASP) has warned that blood collection and some diagnostic duties at the National Public Health Laboratory and some public hospitals in the Corporate Area may be hampered tomorrow as several medical technologists will face the court.
"In some departments in the lab it will include everyone and in other areas two-thirds of the med techs will have to be in court. The lab itself will probably be closed," said Leeford Bennett, chief union delegate at UTASP, the union representing the medical technologists. Services may also be affected at the Bustamante Children's Hospital and the National Chest Hospital, he said.
Thirty-three Government-paid medical technologists from the Blood Bank, the lab and the two hospitals, will appear for the second time in the Half-Way Tree Resident Magistrate's Court tomorrow. They first appeared in court on February 24 to answer charges of disobeying a back-to-work order issued by the Industrial Disputes Tribunal (IDT) during a strike by public service technologists in January.
Court summonses were also sent to four medical technologists from the Spanish Town Hospital in St. Catherine and three technologists from Cornwall Regional Hospital in Montego Bay, St. James. They appeared in court previously and are to go back next month.
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.
The technologists also angered John Junor, Minister of Health, by announcing plans to take departmental leave to support their colleagues facing the courts.
Mr. Junor said Monday he filed a complaint with the Ministry of Finance and Planning's Industrial Relations Unit and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, Kent Pantry, Q.C., on the matter.
Mr. Junor said that he has not yet received a response from these two offices but that he also sent a letter to the technologists, stating that they were taking industrial action by taking unapproved leave.
Mr. Bennett, who confirmed that UTASP received Mr. Junor's letter, said the union later advised some medical technologists to work while their colleagues went to court to answer charges or to show support.
But Thursday's interruptions were unavoidable because most medical technologists in those facilities have been summoned to court, he said.
The technologists, through their union, stated on March 11 that they would take leave on March 12, 21 and 27 and several medical technologists have since done so.
The technologists went on strike twice in January after the Government rejected their claim that they were entitled to parity with Government scientific officers who, they said, earned more money but did similar duties.
Several meetings between the UTASP and Government did not resolve the issue so the matter went to the IDT. It issued a back-to-work order which the medical technologists defied.
The salaries of scientific officers start at $700,000 per annum while medical technologists' start at $463,000 per year.
In the meantime, the IDT is set to continue hearings into the parity dispute on April 7.
