Nurses fight on for universal pay

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A two-tier pay scale for Bahrain’s nurses has been rejected by the profession. (Getty Images)

Nurses in Bahrain are appealing to their Prime Minister to support their demand for all nurses to be paid on a new professional pay scale.

Members of the Bahrain Nurses Society (BNS) will replace the red ribbons of protest they have been wearing for the last month at plans to introduce a two-tier pay scheme, with white ribbons of peace to encourage further debate with the government on the pay issue.

The BNS is appealing against draft proposals drawn up by the Ministry of Health and the Civil Bureau, which were submitted to the Prime Minister‘s office in August for approval.

These plans limit the newly devised professional pay level to nurses with a bachelors degree or above.

This would mean only 400 of the country's 6,000 strong nursing workforce qualifying for the higher pay award, which starts at BHD500 (US$1,326) per month.

The move would leave the vast majority of nurses on the general pay scale with a starting salary of BHD380 ($1,000) per month; a wage the BNS has been battling to increase for three years.

BNS President Rula Al Saffar told Medical Times that all the country's nurses should be placed on the same scale. She warned that the two-tier system could create serious divisions within the profession.

"We are hoping that the Prime Minister's office will ask for us to come in and show him what's going wrong with this, and why we are rejecting the final draft by the Ministry of Health and the Civil Bureau."

Al Saffar added: "People will be graduating from their bachelors degree and getting paid on the professional scale, and they will get paid more then a general nurse who has been working for five to six years."

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