The 388 Health Care Assistants (HCA), who received a letter from the new government stating they could not take up their jobs in the hospitals where they had been posted, want to take legal action. They have contacted lawyers Samad Goolamaully and Ashley Hurhungee with that purpose in mind. Meanwhile, the HCAs have been on hunger strike since last Friday at the Jardin de la Compagnie.

The newly elected government wants to investigate the way this recruitment was done before allowing the HCAs to start work. They want to make sure the recruitment was not an ?electoral bribe?. Meanwhile, the 388 HCA are at a loss.

The minister of Health, Satish Faugoo, has ?frozen? the posts as he wants ?to make sure the recruitment was done in all transparency?. The offer letters stamped after election day ?confirm his belief? that this may have been an ?electoral bribe? by the former government. The prime minister, Navin Ramgoolam, has taken a severe approach. He has asked the hunger strikers to leave the Jardin de la Compagnie as their protests are illegal.

Before ?settling? in the garden, the HCAs had protested in Port-Louis streets after being welcomed by the police on what was supposed to be their first day at work. The police refused to let them in. They tried to convince the minister of Health to give them their jobs but the latter insisted on an enquiry into the recruitment process. This is why some in despair, started their hunger strike.

Many of them have left their jobs in private companies to become HCAs. They now find themselves in a difficult situation. On the one hand, their former company will refuse to take them back and, on the other, they have lost their new jobs before even starting them.

The lawyers contacted by the HCAs assert that the recruitment cancellation was illegal and intend to ask for an injunction on the matter. According to Ashley Hurhungee, ?they were chosen among 14,000 candidates. This must be a proof that they deserve these posts.? But the cabinet has decided that the recruitment will be subject to an enquiry? and nobody knows when it will start!

The opposition leader, Paul Bérenger, said these 300 HCA are going through difficult and distressing times. He asserts that the recruitment, done during his term of office, has nothing of an electoral bribe. To make his point, he explains that it was done in February and March and that the posts were earmarked in the 2004-05 budget He also announced that the issue would be raised at the first session of Parliament today, if necessary.