Doctors patch up differences with union

THE leadership of the doctors’ branch of civil servants’ union Pasydy withdrew their resignations yesterday after patching-up their differences with the union.

The branch leadership had quit on Thursday claiming Pasydy had gone behind its back in agreeing contractual provisions with the government.

But yesterday both the branch leadership and Pasydy chairman Glafcos Hadjipetrou blamed the disagreement on “sabotage” by a renegade band of government doctors.

Hadjipetrou accused this “splinter group” of deliberately distributing a draft document in place of a copy of the working agreement on pay and conditions negotiated with the government.

Hadjipetrou said these contentious provisions had never been part of the final agreement struck with the government.

“Certain doctors got hold of the minutes (from negotiations) and used them to achieve their aims,” Hadjipetrou charged. He said he did not know how these doctors had got their hands on the draft documents, “but what matters is that the truth be told.”

He said a minority of doctors had long been trying to drum-up support for abandoning Pasydy.

“A small number of doctors has been trying to collect signatures for a departure from Pasydy because they were not getting what they wanted, which was basically an extension of retirement age,” he said.

The branch leadership, which had threatened to call on all government doctors to vote on a motion to leave Pasydy, made no comment yesterday.

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