Nurses seek restoration of shift allowance

State nurses asked on Monday that their slashed shift allowances are fully restored after the cabinet decision last week to give €500 as a monthly allowance to doctors working in the A&E departments of state hospitals.

In an announcement, the nurses’ branch of the civil servants’ union Pasydy, said that following the recent cabinet decision concerning doctors working at the A&Es, it was “imperative” that the government also look into the possibility of restoring the full shift allowances to nursing staff working in the same departments “as a minimum indication of the recognition and appreciation of their difficult task”.
“Both the medical and nursing staff  work under the same difficult conditions and the same excessive workload and therefore any benefits that the state decides to provide should concern all health workers,” the announcement said.

Due to the economic crisis, the shift allowance for public sector workers employed on a shift system (nurses, civil aviation, electricity technicians) were gradually slashed by 25 per cent in 2013 following an agreement of the government and trade unions.

Cabinet decided last week to offer as of next month a €500 monthly allowance to doctors working in A&E as an incentive to curb transfer requests to less demanding departments.

The same monthly amount will also be given to specialist doctors at the Kyperounda hospital as a ‘remote areas allowance’, in recognition of their difficult working conditions and an incentive to remain working there. Cabinet also asked the health minister to look into the possibility of giving the allowance to doctors who work at the hospital of Polis Chrysochous and other remote areas.

 

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.