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An emergency conciliation meeting has been scheduled for Wednesday afternoon at the Ministry of Labour, to end industrial action by nurses.
Representatives of the Nurses Association of Jamaica (NAJ) have been called to the meeting as the health sector continues to reel from the impact of the sick out that started on Tuesday.
The meeting will also involve representatives from the Ministries of Health and Finance.
"We were contacted by the Ministry of Labour to have a meeting at 2pm today . We recognise that the matter had to go to the Ministry of Labour....." she said.
The nurses are insisting that the payment of salaries due under a reclassification exercise be made earlier than stipulated by the Finance Ministry. They say they are not willing to wait beyond next month for the payment.
However Minister with responsibility for the Public Service, Horace Dalley says the government is unable to make payment before February 2016.
Conditions worsen at hospitals
NAJ President Janett Coore Farr says the situation at the island's hospitals continues to worsen. She says in most cases only one nurse is on each ward and care is only being given in cases of emergency.
Figures released by the NAJ have shown that more than half of the nurses across the island failed to report for duty on Wednesday morning with some institutions have fewer than 10 nurses.
At the Mandeville Regional Hospital, 43 of 47 nurses called in sick. The four nurses present had a patient load of 232.
The Port Antonio and Annotto Bay Hospitals had four nurses at work while Falmouth and Linstead hospitals had five nurses reporting for work.
In Kingston and St Andrew the National Chest Hospital had 10 of 16 nurses on duty and Bellevue Hospital had 9 of 35 present.
Kingston Public Hospital had the highest number of nurses calling in sick with 140 out of 198 failing to turn out for duty and the Victoria Jubilee Hospital had 9 nurses reporting for work from a total of 36 assigned for duty.
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