Will pharmaceutical debacle result in legal dispute?

Sharon Anderson

With all that out of the way, we can get to the matter of the Public Service Union, which has declared the Danini Contreras appointment as an essential services dispute. The union got on board after Chief Pharmacist Sharon Anderson reported that she had been a victim of some serious and devious shenanigans in the Ministry of Health. She was on sick leave when an email surfaced claiming that she was on strike and refusing to sign Customs entries. That email reached C.E.O. Peter Allen who immediately jumped on the opportunity to uplift Danini Contreras and two others, giving them authority traditionally held only by the Chief Pharmacist. Anderson has been talking libel, and accordingly, Allen has lawyered up.

Peter Allen, C.E.O., Ministry of Health

“We immediately referred the matter to the Office of the Solicitor-General in the Ministry of the Attorney-General, so yesterday evening I had a very pleasant hour with one of the Crown Counsels from the Office of the Solicitor-General who said, with due respect, if Mike of Jules ask you that please refer them to the office of the Solicitor-General.”

Reporter

Peter Allen

“Sir, but tell us about this email. Were you aware that Sharon Anderson was on certified sick leave?”

Peter Allen

“Actually I was in Jamaica. I was attending the Caribbean Regional Public Health Agency executive board meeting where we were principally looking at issues related to chikungunya. I wasn’t aware that anybody on sick leave!”

Reporter

“And sir, when you received that email from whoever sent out that email…did you react out of a gut instinct without checking to see if your Chief Pharmacist was at work or not? Because the email allegedly said that she was on strike and refusing to sign entries, and there was a response quoted from you. Did you check to see if it was in fact true?”

Peter Allen

“Well as I say, and I am sorry, but on the advice of the Office of the Solicitor-General, anything on that issue you are welcome to check with the Office of the Solicitor-General. From our perspective in the Ministry of Health we did the right thing, we continue to try to do the right thing.”

Michael Pitts

Michael Pitts, Director of Health Services

“I am her immediate supervisor and she shared with me her sick leave certificate. So I have seen those and we tender those to the Ministry on time. So when I heard that somebody was sending out emails that she was on strike I found that as totally off the mark. Because I have seen her sick leave certificate. In fact, with my officers we speak on a regular basis and even while she was on sick leave I had occasion to know that I could have asked her to come out and do certain things, and in fact she was doing certain things on behalf of the Ministry while on sick leave.”

Reporter

“So the allegations that she had refused to sign Customs entries is untrue to your knowledge?”

Michael Pitts

“Well I know that she signed Customs entries while she was on sick leave.”

In his response to the email maligning Anderson, C.E.O. Allen allegedly stated that Anderson could not be allowed to hold the system to ransom.