Minister for Economy, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says there is a lot of demand for nurses overseas and one needs to look at where the nurses are going after resigning from the Ministry of Health.
He says if the nurses are resigning to go overseas where they will be paid three or four times more than what they are earning in Fiji, then no one can stop them from resigning.
Sayed-Khaiyum says these nurses are going to work for alternative employers who may be offering them lots of money which the Ministry of Health cannot offer.
He stated this after SODELPA MP, Inosi Kuridrani asked whether the Ministry of Health has a plan to increase the salaries and improve the working conditions of nurses as there has been massive resignation of nurses.
Sayed-Khaiyum adds some nurses may not be happy with the working conditions and they have re-started overtime pay.
He says nurses also received salary increments and in some categories it went up by 39 to 42 percent. Meanwhile, the Minister for Economy says he wants to state again that there was no investment in the Human Resource Departments in many ministries in the past and some of the ministries need to strengthen their HR Departments.
Sayed-Khaiyum says the HR Departments in the ministries need to know when the contracts of civil servants are expiring and start the renewal process in a timely manner.
He says there were issues in some of the ministries which have been rectified.
He highlighted this while responding to SODELPA MP Ro Filipe Tuisawau who had stated that civil servants are being given short term contracts which affects their job security.
Ro Filipe had also questioned what the government is doing to rectify this problem as when contracts come to an end, the ministries are not advertising the positions but giving civil servants short term contracts and at times, monthly contracts.
