Bahrain: U-turn over strike

By BEGENA P PRADEEP

A PETITION will be signed by more than 6,000 nurses for increased salaries and more staff and presented to Prime Minister Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, it was announced yesterday. Members of the Bahrain Nursing Society (BNS) had earlier threatened to spearhead a nationwide nurses' strike if demands weren't met.

President Rula Al Saffar had given the authorities a three-week ultimatum, though they have now decided to give them more time to review the matter.

Ms Al Saffar had reiterated earlier that nurses hoped to reach a solution without strike, but said they were prepared to follow through on their threat.

However, BNS secretary-general Ibrahim Al Demestani yesterday rejected the possibility of going on strike.

Sources told the GDN that the Health Ministry officials would investigate whether Ms Al Saffar had instigated the protest.

Society insiders said that they would not allow the ministry any such investigations as it did not come under the Health Ministry, but the Social Affairs Ministry.

More than 6,000 nurses will wear coloured ribbons from Sunday onwards as they step up their campaign for increased salaries and more staff.

They will wear orange ribbons for two weeks from Sunday, red ribbons for the next two weeks and black ribbons for the fifth and sixth week if their demands for a 50 per cent pay rise and more staff are still not met.

Further action will be planned at the end of the six weeks if there is still no positive response but a strike is not a possibility.

"We have already launched a petition and are asking nurses to join it," said Mr Al Demestani.

"We will then send it to Prime Minister Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa requesting him to find a solution to our problem.

"We do not want to go on a strike because it is not in our interests.

"We understand a nurse's duty more than anyone else and don't need anyone to tell us that.

"We have an ethical responsibility towards our patients that would not allow us to leave them in their time of need.

"But the authorities must realise the importance of our role in society instead of taking advantage of our sense of duty.

"Going on an actual strike is so different from protesting in our own way without stopping work.

"We declare our disappointment against not being given what we actually deserve.

"But conveying our disapproval of how we are being treated should not be mixed up by going on strike.

"The nurses will definitely continue doing their duty.

"A Health Ministry official has been constantly promising us for a couple of years now as well as in the media that nurses will be upgraded to a professional level.

"Every time we try to follow up on the matter, we are assured that it is under process. But we've not got anything until now.

"We are fed up of waiting and have reached the limits of our patience.

Mr Al Demestani said that the society was hurt by the attitude of the nursing administration staff at the Salmaniya Medical Complex, health centres and maternity hospitals.

"They have ordered them not to wear the ribbons, threatening to suspend those who do for three days.

"If they continue to wear the ribbon even after this, their services would be terminated forever."

The Health Ministry employs 6,000 nurses, of whom 63pc are Bahrainis and 2,700 work within the ministry, and all start at a basic wage of BD300 a month.

However, the ministry declared the strike as "illegal" and threatened to hold Ms Al Saffar directly responsible if the nurses went ahead with the agitation.

Her announcement was in violation of the Trade Unions Law (Article 21), which prohibits strikes in the nursing sector, said the ministry.

The society started distributing coloured ribbons to their members yesterday evening.

---Gulf Daily News