00:00The finance minister has promised both the TTNNA and Tuta that relief is coming for their memberships with a deadline
00:08of budget next year, once negotiations are settled. However, Tuta is not impressed.
00:15Tuta would have heard the minister of finance presentation with respect to the budget yesterday, and we are not in
00:22agreement with that. We are totally displeased. We are disheartened. Our membership right now, they're hurting because they need their
00:30back pay. And now we are hearing that the goalpost has been shifted yet another time. First of all, it
00:36would have been July. Then it would have been January. Then it would have been the end of the first
00:40quarter in 2026. Now we're hearing fiscal year 2027.
00:44What part are they off? You cannot simply keep moving the goalposts. This is unacceptable, and we do not agree
00:50with it. And Tuta would be looking at its options.
00:54But the National Nurses Association is a bit more optimistic.
00:58The association is encouraged by the minister of finance, did heed the call of the nursing association, did hear the
01:09cries of healthcare workers, and nursing and ministry personnel in particular, in finally breaking the silence when it comes to
01:18negotiations and salary increases for RHA workers, for nursing and ministry personnel.
01:24This is the first occasion that any one of the three persons we have been calling on, the minister of
01:33finance, the prime minister, or the minister of health, has made a definite statement as to how and when salary
01:40increases would be afforded to nursing and ministry personnel.
01:43At this time, nurses and other RHA workers are still working on 2013 salaries.
01:51The TTNNA is urging the government to forego negotiations and proceed straight to settlement.
01:58So what has to happen now is the outstanding period has to be dealt with 14 to 16, 17 to
02:0719, 20 to 22, and 23 to 25.
02:13And so we actually, in the fifth period, all we are asking for at this point in time, because we
02:23do not want the government the opportunity to indicate that negotiations is ongoing and all of that.
02:30We are saying, apply that 10% increase against the public servants, apply to RHA workers, because we don't, negotiations
02:41is a long, drawn-out process, and we just want to clear that backlog, bring us up to 2019, and
02:50then we will begin negotiations from 2020 period onwards.
02:56Renessa Cutting, TV6 News.
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