The Secretary for Personnel Management Department, John Kali will seek the court’s interpretation on the registration of the Health Support Workers Union.
Kali said that the industrial tribunal chairperson has summoned parties of the Health Support Workers Union to appear before her and ordered them not to go on strike.
In the meantime, the health support workers have been banned from taking any industrial action or strike.
“In the meantime, we will want to see, what the courts say about the registration. And if they direct us to resume negotiation,”
Secretary Kali earlier strongly protested against the registration of the health support workers union, saying there was no need for the health support staff to become a separate union.
This is because these members have already been benefiting from industrial awards negotiated by the Public Employees Association.
“So the health support staffs are already members of some other unions of the health sector. And so it would cost some difficulties in managing this group of people,”
Mr Kali says he disputed the secret ballot conducted by the health support workers.
This is because there was no industrial dispute.
“Because we never negotiated, we never met. Purely because the log of claims they served to me, were the log of claims they developed well before they became a registered industrial organisation,
“Based on that, I didn’t recognise the log of claims, served on me, because they were from a group of people who were working on forming a union,
“If they have served the log of claims after the registration, then I would have accepted it.”
