We risk a long haul health crisis that court orders won’t resolve

There can be no greater example of the challenges posed by a mechanistic application of the law than the ongoing imbroglio of the medic’s strike. If one puts aside the public interest in the matter, which obviously favours the doctors, there is no doubt that the doctors’ legal position is weak on merits. Strictly, as a matter of law, there was nothing the court did by sentencing the doctors’ union leaders to prison to purge their contempt of the court.

The court had issued an order, however defective one may argue it was, and union leaders refused to obey it. That, automatically opened them to a charge for contempt. What, pray was the court to do in those circumstances? By way of background, the beginning point is a recognition that the doctors’ strike is based on a constitutionally defective Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) that their union signed with the Ministry of Health in 2013.