BRIEFS. labor

Hospital technicians protest for unpaid wages

Surgical technicians in nursing and radiology, along with auxiliary staff at the Complejo Hospitalario of the Caja de Seguro Social (CSS), stopped working yesterday to protest not being paid for the overtime they've put in.

Elga Guerra, representative for the nursing technicians, said the administration has not paid them for their time for three months. "Yesterday [Wednesday] they told us they would pay us today [Thursday], but they didn't," she reported.

The technicians did attend to urgent surgeries and transplants, but around 140 other scheduled surgeries were not performed.

Edgardo Quintero, national director of personnel for the CSS, confirmed that the technicians are owed back pay, but that they are not alone. Doctors and manual laborers haven't been paid either.