Health

EMTs Territory-Wide Stage Sick Out In Wage Increase Protest Action; Health Commissioner Vows To Rectify Matter Quickly

Last updated at 6:12 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2019 Emergency Medical Technicians in St. Croix and St. Thomas, employees critical to responding to emergencies across the territory, today staged a sick out, leaving the Department of Health scrambling to find individuals to replace them, the Consortium can confirm. Two EMTs -- both of whom requested anonymity -- told this publication Tuesday morning that the sick out, which saw roughly 15 EMTs in St. Croix and about 16 in St. Thomas deciding not to show up to work, was a coordinated effort to get the Department of Health and other stakeholders to make good on their promise of effectuating long-promised wage increases. "It's about broken promises. For the last two months we have been hearing every payday that we're getting our money, and the merge was supposed to be effective October 1 and we were told that we were going to get our money before October 1," said one of the two EMTs. "Payday came, today is Tuesday, and up to now n...