By LEDEDRA MARCHE

Senior FN Reporter

lededra@nasguard.com

Nurses nationwide successfully executed day two of planned sick-outs yesterday, forcing the signing of a new industrial agreement later that day.

With that signing, the nurses are expected to report to work this morning.

The sick-out not only affected the Princess Margaret Hospital and the Sandilands Rehabilitation Centre in New Providence, but also extended to the Rand Memorial Hospital here in Freeport and clinics on the various Family Islands.

The nurses, who were in the middle of negotiations for a new five-year contract contend they will not work until a pay increase, insurance coverage and additional benefits are in place.

Yesterday's contract signing addressed the top concerns of the nurses, including that of threats and exposure to violence.

Labour Minister Vincent Peet at a press conference in the capital late yesterday spoke on the meaning of the new contract.

"This, I think, will go a long way in providing for them that type of security that their family would need and they themselves would need," he said.

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Acting Public Hospitals Authority (PHA) Manag-ing Director Hanna Gray, while elated with the signing, called the two-day sick out unnecessary and said it was expected that the nurses return to their respective work stations "forthwith."

In Grand Bahama, officials at the Rand are aware of how many nurses reported sick, but the hospital declined to disclose that number to the media.

Acting Administrator Sandra Mortimer-Russell revealed yesterday that the hospital was able to secure the support of the Senior Nursing Staff and their teams and the physicians in critical areas.

Government was reportedly offering the nurses a 10 percent increase in its base salary over a five-year period, which nurses say is two percent a year.

The PHA, via a press statement Wednesday night, revealed that negotiations in one year of the agreement for all nurses would receive a $900 lump sum and three to six per- cent wage increase; a four percent general increase on base wages in the second year and a three percent increase in the fourth year.

The PHA pointed out that the sick-out was a breach of negotiations and a violation of the Industrial Relations Act.

The nurses' action received not only the government's attention yesterday, but the Christian council's as well.

In an impassioned plea earlier in the day, Bishop William Thompson, president of The Bahamas Christian Council called on the nurses who were reported to be in the hundreds, to return to work for the good of the people.

"We hope that negotiations would be speedy and come to a conclusion at the earliest possible time," he said. "But in the meantime, if they would return their services so those persons in the hospital would get the care and not suffer."

While the Christian community understands the plight of the nurses, Dr. Thompson said the church felt compelled to step in.

"We are the watchdogs of the people and when the church feels that anything would bring hurt to the country, then the church is called to step in," he said.

VINCENT PEET