https://www.laestrella.com.pa/nacional/201125/enfermeras-marchan-presidencia-pedirle-cortizo-les-atienda-peticiones

Today, November 25, a group of nurses carries out a symbolic march, representing the 6,500 in the country, to demand that the President of the Republic Laurentino Cortizo attend to them because they have not yet found an answer to their request that they do comply with the law that protects their professions, despite the various meetings they have had at the level of the Ministry of Health and the Social Security Fund.

His requests also include the permanence of more than 600 contracted nurses, the payment of wages owed and the salary increase of more than 800 nurses. “We request permanence for the more than 600 nurses who have been eventually hired,” said the president of the National Association of Nurses, Ana Reyes de Serrano while walking towards the Presidency of the Republic.

“We want these contracts to be regularized because we cannot continue to violate our right to economic security and well-being,” urged Reyes, who also claims that they have not been summoned to dialogue.

They also demand that “everything owed to them be paid.” “There enters a group (of nurses) that although it is true they have paid a part, they have left remnants. He is owed a month or they have not paid overtime,” said the spokeswoman for the nurses.Related news

• Nurses will march to the Presidency
• Nurses will march towards the Presidency to enforce the law that protects their profession

He pointed out that there are also more than 800 nurses who are specialists and that since 2017 they are waiting for the fulfillment of a salary scale and there is still no answer.

“As this government says that it complies with the agreement, that is why we are going there (to the Presidency),” said Reyes, who clarified that although we are in times of pandemic, they have decided to make these claims because of patience, tolerance and wait they ran out.

“We cannot be the last on the list. We see that they pay other people, others who still have their rights; there are allocations of items for other instances that we do not doubt are needed, but in that distribution we are a backbone that we expose life every day, not now, but in a pandemic more “and his request has not yet been answered.

He stressed that with the covid-19 pandemic, five nurses have already died and many of them were waiting for these payments but died. In addition there are hundreds who are infected with the virus. And “we feel that they do not protect us as it should be, so today, November 25, the international day of non-violence against women, we decided to do this walk.”

He indicated that “what has been evidenced in times of a pandemic is all the weaknesses of an administrative nature, of the bureaucracy, so it has been wanted to handle it as if it were a regular situation and we are not in regular situations, therefore it deserves adjustments administrative in its process and we are also asking that, … we do not know when the coronavirus will go away. “