Ritika Pratap 
John Paul [Photo: Supplied]
The Construction Energy and Timber Workers Union of Fiji has given a strike notice to Aspen Medical on Monday.
Union National Secretary John Paul says by law, they are required to give at least 14 days written notice of a strike to the Employer and serve a copy to the Arbitration Court.
Paul says they are thinking about the people accessing services provided at the Lautoka and Ba hospitals run by Aspen Medical and thus, have given the company some extra days hoping to negotiate and resolve the impasse.
Paul claims Aspen is playing the blame game that it cannot enter into negotiation with the Union until they have clarity from the stakeholders on the Public Private Partnership.
He claims the workers’ grievances have not been addressed since Aspen took over the operations at the two hospitals.
Paul states that if Aspen Medical will not come to the table and negotiate on the Log of Claims, they the strike will start at 7am on February 6th and continue until the dispute is resolved.
He says they have 200 members working at the two hospitals and all of them have voted to go on strike.
Paul further states that they have called on the Fiji National Provident Fund to intervene since it is the major stakeholder in Health Care (Fiji) Pte Ltd, which is trading as Aspen Medical, but FNPF did not say or do anything for the workers.
He further claims that they also called on the Coalition Government to intervene in the dispute as the previous government gave Aspen Medical a 23-year-old contract to upgrade Lautoka and Ba Hospitals, but nothing has happened.
He stresses that they have had enough of the delaying tactics and the union members are ready to go on strike.
