KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC – Officials from the ministries of Finance and Labour and representatives of the Nurses Association of Jamaica (NAJ) are scheduled to return to the bargaining table on Wednesday afternoon after they failed to resolve a bitter wage dispute during marathon talks ending early Tuesday.
The marathon meeting which started on 2 p.m. on Monday ended at 1 a.m. on Tuesday at the Ministry of Labour was organised as part of a back to work agreement reached last Friday with the NAJ following two days of protest by its members.
While government offered the health care workers an increase of 22 per cent over two years, the nurses are demanding an 80 per cent increase in the first year and 40 per cent in the second year.
Last week Thursday and Friday the nurses remained off the job to press for an improved offer crippling operations at hospitals and other public health facilities and forcing many facilities to accept only emergency cases.
A decision to return to work was made after a marathon lengthy meeting on Friday involving executive members of the NAJ and senior officials of the Labour Ministry.