The Fiji Nursing Association is expected to meet with officials from the Ministry of Labor to air their members’ grievances.

President Doctor Alisi Vudiniabola says they are currently registering new members in the hundreds as they aren’t happy with how they have been treated by the Ministry of Health.

Dr Vudiniabola says they are calling for the resignation of the Permanent Secretary Doctor James Fong, Director of Human Resources Joe Fuata, and Chief Nurse Colleen Wilson.

“Where we will table out all our concerns and our demands. The nurses are meeting in their own branches in their various divisions. This is the way to go for the association because our demands now have gone beyond salaries. We are now looking at the people who are creating the heartaches for nurses and that is the leadership in the Ministry of Health.”

Dr Vudiniabola claims they have some members who are paying PAYE tax in excess of 200 per cent adding that one nurse in particular used to pay $23 in PAYE but her pay slip shows that the Ministry is now deducting $429.

“And we have collected all their pay slips, they all brought their pay slips, those who scanned and sent them to us. There are a whole lot of discrepancies and it’s difficult to understand how this has happened. It’s either, those who are in the accounting.”

Meanwhile, Dr Fong says he is aware that the association is calling for his resignation.

He says that there is a task force that’s tasked with trying to consolidate the association’s concerns.

Dr Fong adds that converting these concerns into sustainable action that works within the framework of government is a long process.

“There’s a little bit more understanding that has to go back and forth, there may be other issues that they have that have not been well articulated and that I need to understand but again there is a process that needs to engage in order to get there.”

The nursing association has been at loggerheads with the Ministry of Health over the treatment of nurses within the public health machinery.

Stream the best of Fiji on VITI+. Anytime. Anywhere.