Picketing for jobs needless - Health Ministry

The Ministry of Health has described as unfortunate the decision by the members of the Coalition of Unemployed Private Nurses to picket the ministry over government’s failure to post them several years after completing colleges of health.

The nurses began their picketing on Monday, 31 July and passed the night at the ministry as they have threatened not to return home until their concerns are addressed.

The nurses, about 5000, were trained in private schools. They have accused government of bias. They argue that they have been home since 2012 and all efforts to get government to give them jobs have proved futile while their colleague nurses who trained in public schools are given preference over them.

But speaking to Class News, Public Relations Officer for the Health Ministry, Robert Cudjoe expressed shock at the posture of the nurses. He noted that the picketing was unnecessary as plans were far advanced to resolve the issue.

“What is happening is unfortunate and it shouldn’t happen in the first place. …They don’t want me to talk to them. The Minister has engaged them and they are misquoting him, they are not listening to him. These boys and girls don’t need to come here today because we have done a lot, we have gone the extra mile, we have been engaging, we’ve been holding meetings on this thing as a ministry".

"Why did they have to come here again just to attract attention? Their coming is not what is going to make us recruit them. The process has already started. We started before they started their picketing,” Mr Cudjoe said.