PNG Nurses Warn of Nationwide Strike Over Delayed Payments

Frustration is escalating among nurses in Papua New Guinea as delays in implementing a long-agreed industrial award push the workforce closer to industrial action.

 PNG Nurses Warn of Nationwide Strike Over Delayed Payments

The PNG Nurses Association has announced that its members will stage a nationwide sit-in protest beginning April 1 if the Government fails to clear outstanding payments by March 31.

Association president Frederick Kebai said the agreement had already gone through all formal processes last year and should have been honoured by now.

“Our industrial award was signed in May and gazetted and registered in June last year,” Kebai said.

He outlined that letters had been sent to relevant agencies, including Personnel Management, Finance, Treasury and the Health Department, requesting action on the matter.

The first correspondence, sent in August, called for implementation by September but went unanswered, while a follow-up in January also failed to produce results.

Kebai said nurses throughout the country were growing increasingly impatient, placing pressure on the association to ensure the agreement is enforced.

He added that the PNGNA governing council had resolved that the award must be delivered before the end of March, in line with decisions made at higher levels.

“Failure to meet the deadline will result in industrial action, with preparations already completed nationwide and members ready to walk off the job,” he said. “There will be a mass sit-in protest from April 1.”