"TODAY the nation is expected to find out whether 4000 teachers will add to the country's growing industrial crisis.
It is another situation that the State can ill afford. Yet, the interim administration has seemingly taken an almost aloof approach towards this pressing issue. It is the same with the ongoing nurses strike which enters its seventh day today.
For the past two days the interim Government has remained silent. Maybe it's part of its tactic to pretend to be disinterested or that it is coping well with skeleton staff. If this is the case, then such a strategy may only serve to harden the resolve of these disgruntled unions.
In such matters, it is imperative that dialogue is actively pursued. All that can reasonably be done to find common ground should be pursued, rather than waiting for a routine meeting like today's scheduled Cabinet meet. Yesterday little progress was seen or heard to have been made as striking nurses and the interim Government continued on their divergent paths.
So far we have been fortunate that there has been no major incident that warranted all hands on deck, so to speak.
But how long will this good fortune last? Accounts that all is fine at the various health centres and hospitals are far from the truth, given that basic health services have been denied.
Then there's the interim Labour Minister Bernadette Rounds-Ganilau, whose prolonged assessment of the situation is baffling.
There appears to be a reluctance on her part to refer the matter to compulsory arbitration.
The option was recently brushed aside by a senior civil servant as being time-consuming and thus impractical. Or, could it be that it wants to avoid the real risk of losing more than it can afford?
Whatever the case, the interim Cabinet must today decide on the nurses' grievances and also avert the looming strike by teachers.
Refusing to talk unless the nurses first return to work will be of little help but will only serve to challenge them to stay the course and fight to the bitter end a scenario in which all parties are bound to lose out even more and the innocents in need forced to suffer more.
Parties must exercise goodwill and keep talking.
Meanwhile, striking nurses may want to reconsider their dancing and merry-making at picketing sites. While it may be part and parcel of the local union culture, is it in its interests to appear insensitive at a time when the public health system is at a near standstill and the people they vowed to serve are either waiting for an unreasonably long time or turned away? Editorial FijiTimes online
It is another situation that the State can ill afford. Yet, the interim administration has seemingly taken an almost aloof approach towards this pressing issue. It is the same with the ongoing nurses strike which enters its seventh day today.
For the past two days the interim Government has remained silent. Maybe it's part of its tactic to pretend to be disinterested or that it is coping well with skeleton staff. If this is the case, then such a strategy may only serve to harden the resolve of these disgruntled unions.
In such matters, it is imperative that dialogue is actively pursued. All that can reasonably be done to find common ground should be pursued, rather than waiting for a routine meeting like today's scheduled Cabinet meet. Yesterday little progress was seen or heard to have been made as striking nurses and the interim Government continued on their divergent paths.
So far we have been fortunate that there has been no major incident that warranted all hands on deck, so to speak.
But how long will this good fortune last? Accounts that all is fine at the various health centres and hospitals are far from the truth, given that basic health services have been denied.
Then there's the interim Labour Minister Bernadette Rounds-Ganilau, whose prolonged assessment of the situation is baffling.
There appears to be a reluctance on her part to refer the matter to compulsory arbitration.
The option was recently brushed aside by a senior civil servant as being time-consuming and thus impractical. Or, could it be that it wants to avoid the real risk of losing more than it can afford?
Whatever the case, the interim Cabinet must today decide on the nurses' grievances and also avert the looming strike by teachers.
Refusing to talk unless the nurses first return to work will be of little help but will only serve to challenge them to stay the course and fight to the bitter end a scenario in which all parties are bound to lose out even more and the innocents in need forced to suffer more.
Parties must exercise goodwill and keep talking.
Meanwhile, striking nurses may want to reconsider their dancing and merry-making at picketing sites. While it may be part and parcel of the local union culture, is it in its interests to appear insensitive at a time when the public health system is at a near standstill and the people they vowed to serve are either waiting for an unreasonably long time or turned away? Editorial FijiTimes online
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