00:00According to tutor president Martin Lumpkin, his members are suffering. He
00:05says many persons in the teaching service and in the public service
00:10depend on this Unimed plan, adding that some of them have critical illnesses and
00:15depend on the refunds. But the rise in medical costs along with their monthly
00:21contributions are still not covering what they need. He says something must
00:26be done urgently. There has to be that review of the the monthly payment that
00:35each member has to make or find some other way but in the first instance it's
00:40a matter of injecting funds and the longer the government takes to inject
00:44the greater would be the amount. He says his members are frustrated and tutor
00:51must intervene. This is quite worrying to us. It is becoming very very
00:57worrisome and vexing the situation. I can tell the nation that we have sought our
01:05legal advice from our attorney. We should get that by this week or next week.
01:11Efforts to contact Uniped for response were unsuccessful. On a separate issue
01:18the tutor president tells the Morning Edition, wage talks are at a standstill.
01:23However, Lumpkin says he will not negotiate in public. Instead he prefers
01:29to meet at the table with government and come to an amicable resolution. Let us
01:34sit and trash it out and come to a settlement. We are really hopeful that it
01:40can be done as quickly as possible if we can get a suitable finding and a
01:47suitable position that both parties are comfortable with. We will take it to our
01:52membership and we will settle before the elections come what may if it is
01:57possible at all. Nicole M Romany, TV6 News.
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