MEDICAL TECHNOLOGISTS employed in the public sector are still mum on what their next move will be following a ruling by the Industrial Disputes Tribunal (IDT) on a parity dispute between them and the Government.
Speaking with The Gleaner yesterday, Leeford Bennett, chief union delegate at the Union of Technical, Administrative and Supervisory Personnel (UTASP), would only say that delegates at UTASP, which represents the technologists, will meet with lawyers to discuss the IDT's ruling today.
The technologists had previously stated that they will not comment publicly until after all sides have met to discuss the issue.
IDT RULING
Last week, the IDT ruled, among other things, that scientific officers doing duties similar to medical technologists should be removed from medical laboratories service by December 31, 2003, and that $21,000 per month be paid to chief medical technologists at grades one and two, who were directly supervising scientific officers. This amount should be retroactive to January 1, 2001. The IDT also asked that the remaining medical technologists be reclassified by December 31, 2003 with full implementation of any financial benefits by March 1, 2004. This would also be retroactive to January 1, 2001.
The ruling came almost eight months after the Ministry of Labour asked the IDT to arbitrate the dispute, which resulted in medical technologists going on strike twice in January.
