AMMAN — Some 4,000 healthcare workers from the
Ministry of Health threatened escalatory measures that might lead to a full
strike if their demand for better benefits is not met.
اضافة اعلان
Assistant and associate nurses and care workers
formed a committee representing these health workers to speak on their behalf
as they are not represented by a union and are not allowed to join the
Jordan Nursing Association (JNA), whose statute only allows university degree holders
to join the syndicate.
Mazen Al-Faqih, who heads the committee, said that
the committee represents all the ministry's staff working as assistant or
associate nurses and other caregivers, excluding JNA members, in government
hospitals, outpatient clinics, and health centers across the Kingdom.
Their move toward seeing their demand fulfilled will
start with a sit-in in front of the Parliament, and in case no positive
response is given by the ministry, they will go on a full strike, he added.
The health workers demand a 135 percent salary increase,
just like staff nurses, mid-wives, and workers in supporting healthcare
professions, like X-ray technicians and physiotherapists, holding university-graduate.
They
also want similar incentives and transportation bonus, the right to overtime
bonuses, improved professional situation, more attention to up skilling,
occupational hazard bonus, and scholarships for their children at state
universities, which are all granted to public employees in other sectors.
Faqih said that the health cadres represented by
the commission hold community college diplomas and are certified to practice
the profession.
These
healthcare providers are the backbone of the anti-COVID campaign, including the
vaccination drive, he stressed.
JNA President Khalid Rababaa said the law does
not grant membership in the union to those who do not hold a bachelor’s degree,
and there are no plans to change that.
Assistant nurse Lina Al-Sartawi said that the
campaign to improve the conditions of this category of healthcare givers was
supposed to start earlier, but it was put on hold due to the pandemic.
"We
have resumed it now and demand equal treatment with others."
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