Workers protest at Sando Hospital

Bags of garbage lined the wards throughout the San Fernando General Hospital creating an unhygenic atmosphere as the daily-paid workers staged protest demonstrations yesterday. The workers complained that negotiations between their representative union Nation Union for Government and Federated Worker and the South West Regional Health Authority had ended since March but the Authority is yet to finalise that agreement. Workers said that they were supposed to receive new uniforms and safety gears and that the time period was long overdue so they have stopped work. The scenes at the hospital were quite filthy as it was the third day the employees have taken  action. Garbage bags piled up with waste bins overflowing and an acerbic smell filling the wards as the floors appeared not to have been cleaned for some days. One employee said, “My uniforms are old. I have no shoes. I have to wear my own, I am fed up of this.”

This strike included workers of the Electrical, Grounds and Environment and Water treatment department. Chief Executive Officer of SWRHA, Anil Gosine said that all the protective gears will be given to the workers as soon as possible. “The workers themselves have decided they will hold their hands temporarily. In the meantime we are trying to make alternative arrangements to clear the waste,” he said. Gosine added that talks between the authority and the union will be arranged to have the problem rectified.