He received an end of inadmissibility: he was dispatched to Guadeloupe to negotiate with the “suspended,” those unvaccinated nurses who have been sacked from their post for more than a year without pay, the cabinet director of the Overseas Delegate Minister recognized on Friday, October 14 that he had not fulfilled his mission.
Staff unions and collectives of “suspended” rejected the “exit from the crisis” proposed by Joël Mathurin. According to the ministry, 221 caregivers identified by the regional health authority are affected, of whom 93 worked at the CHU of Guadeloupe – they would be 160 in the hospital in Martinique, a hundred hospital workers and Liberals in Guyana. In Pointe-à-Pitre, Jean-François Carenco’s cabinet proposed an “extraordinary departure plan” through increased contract terminations. He offered to triple the severance payment “to at least 40,000 euros” to examine “conversions”. Even early retirement, pejorative, came on the table.
But employees are adhering to one requirement, their reintegration, through regular PCR testing and respect for barrier gestures. With 50% of the population and 80% of caregivers vaccinated (compared to 85% and 99% in France respectively), Guadeloupe, like Martinique and Guyana, shows its strong specificity. In the department, firefighters, who are 60% unvaccinated, still work under a strict health protocol.
“A Catastrophe of Misunderstanding”
Covid-19 and the vaccination issue were at the heart of the violent demonstrations that shook the island in November 2021. Against the background of the social crisis, the health theme also pointed strongly to the excellent results of La France insoumise (LFI) and the National Rally in overseas territories during the last presidential and parliamentary elections. “This issue is a strong political signal. Overseas, no Presidential Majority MP has been elected, the government cannot ignore this political distrust,” recalls MP (Liberties, Independents, Overseas and Territories) Olivier Serva, who, taking into account the liberal nurses and the medico-social sector, mentions 1,500 affected in Guadeloupe.
Read the interview: Article reserved for our subscribers Vaccination against Covid-19: “In the West Indies there is a desire to treat oneself and not by following externally imposed guidelines”
Minister Jean-François Carenco reiterated before the National Assembly’s Legal Affairs Commission on September 28 that he wanted to “build a solution”. “We are talking about less than 200 people if we only take employees. It’s not a disaster, but it’s a disaster of misunderstanding on both sides,” he admitted. The fact remains that all health authorities – the Scientific Council, the High Authority for Health, the Academy of Medicine – have so far refused to allow family carers an exemption from the obligation to vaccinate. The “exposed” nationwide would be 2,000 to 3,000.
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