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Nursing Personnel Convention, 1977 (No. 149) - Uruguay (RATIFICATION: 1980)

1. With reference to its previous comments, the Committee notes the information supplied by the Government, particularly as regards the application, in the public sector, of Article 5, paragraph 3, of the Convention (settlement of disputes through negotiations between the parties or through independent and impartial machinery).

2. The Committee requests the Government to supply additional information in its report on the following points:

Article 2, paragraph 2(a) and (b). In reply to its previous comments, the Government indicates that measures have been taken to change the study programme of the University Nursing School and to award diplomas in this subject to those who are about to finish their courses there. It adds that the shortage of nurses has also led the above School to establish a programme of supplementary studies, intended to train nursing auxiliaries who have attained the required standard of pre-university education, so that they can gain a nursing diploma in a short time and thereby raise the number of persons with diplomas in this subject. The Committee notes with interest the indications supplied by the Government and requests it to continue supplying information on the progress achieved as regards education and training that is appropriate to the exercise of nursing functions.

As regards their conditions of employment and work, the Government indicates that levels of remuneration continue to be inadequate, particularly in the public sector, and that this frequently results in nursing personnel taking on a second job. The Committee trusts that the Government will make every effort to take the necessary measures to improve the levels of remuneration and the conditions of employment and work (including career prospects) of nursing personnel in general and of those in the public sector in particular in order to attract persons to the profession and retain them in it, in accordance with the above provision of the Convention.

Article 5, paragraph 2. In reply to the Committee's comments, the Government indicates that the Committee set up to formulate a preliminary text of the Conditions of Service of Health Personnel, has suspended its meetings due to the withdrawal of the representatives of the Medical Union of Uruguay, the Uruguay Health Federation and the Mutual Benefit Societies of the Interior. The Committee hopes that it will be possible to recommence negotiations between the Government and the trade union organisations concerned in the near future in order to determine the conditions of employment and work of nursing personnel, both in the public and private sectors, and that the Government will indicate the progress achieved in this respect. The Committee also notes with interest the creation, within the Ministry of Health, according to the Government's report, of a Technical Nursing Committee in which representatives of the personnel of "Hospital de Clínicas", and the Nurses' Association participate on an equal footing, and it notes that this Committee has been given the task of updating the existing standards in this sector in the specific field of nursing. The Committee also notes the initiative taken by the Nurses' Association to formulate, with the participation of the representatives of all the health services at the national level, draft legislation and regulations that are specifically applicable to nursing personnel. The Committee requests the Government to keep it informed of the outcome of the work undertaken by the Technical Committee and the Nurses' Association.

3. Point V of the report form. The Committee notes the Government's explantions and trusts that, despite the difficulties to which it refers, it will be possible for it to supply information on the effect given to the Convention in practice, including statistical data on the numbers of nursing personnel in general and in relation to the population and to the numbers of other workers in the health sector.