Public sector nurses end strike after deal with Health Ministry

AMMAN — Public sector nurses ended a weeklong strike on Tuesday after reaching an agreement with the Health Ministry approving their demands.

The 11,000 nurses in the public sector, who started a work stoppage last week, ended their strike as the ministry agreed to immediately meet their demands, Jordan Nurses and Midwives Association President Mohammad Hatamleh told The Jordan Times.

"We are optimistic this time that the ministry will honour its commitments and meet our demands," Hatamleh said.

"We have been calling for meeting these demands for more than three years," he added.

"We had several meetings over the past few days and finally we succeeded in getting our demands. I expect that we will see results in the next few weeks. We will strike again if they fail to honour their commitments," Hatamleh said.

Health Ministry officials were not available for comment despite several attempts by The Jordan Times.

The association announced a strike last Wednesday and called for increasing the technical allowance of staff nurses from 100 per cent of the basic salary to 120 per cent.

It also wants the technical allowance for practical and associate nurses raised from 40 per cent of the basic salary to 70 per cent.

In addition, the association is asking for increasing the overtime allowance from 30 per cent of the basic salary to 35 per cent of the overall paid salary for all nurses in the public sector.