Nurses Strike: FRETILIN appeals for calm, urges dialogue

FRETILIN
NATIONAL PARLIAMENT

MEDIA RELEASE

Dili, 7 February 2011

Nurses Strike: FRETILIN appeals for calm, urges dialogue, tables motion for urgent debate on health by National Parliament.

FRETILIN parliamentary leader Aniceto Guterres today told journalists that his MPs in the Timor-Leste National Parliament today tabled a motion requesting an urgent debate due to a threatened strike action by health professionals, principally nurses, at the national Hospital.

He appealed to both health professionals and the government not to take precipitous action that will impact negatively on the public, urging them to maintain dialogue open to seek to resolve the current dispute.

“Like many of our people, we too have been concerned for some time with the state of our health system, mainly the unavailability of pharmaceutical and other medical supplies in clinics and hospitals throughout the country, as well as falling service delivery in the health sector. We get complaints from the general public all the time, everywhere we go. It is for these reasons, as well as the threatened strike action, that we have requested an urgent debate, so as that parliament itself can get to the bottom of a dispute that looks like dragging on. The Minister must come and explain why a dispute over pay and vocational conditions has resulted in threats of a strike, which is unprecedented for this sector,” Guterres said.

He called for all concerned “to look to continued dialogue, avoid direct action, as the means to overcome these differences that have emerged. It is in this spirit that we as a constitutional body of this state want an urgent debate, to further the process of dialogue and seek to find solutions in the best interests of all concerned,” he urged.

FRETILIN has asked that the Presidency of the National Parliament give due attention and schedule an urgent debate session.

For further information please contact Jose Teixeira MP on +670 728 7080