-Finance Min. Tweah says Gov’t payment has begun, but Health Workers Union say more needed to end strike
BY OUR STAFF WRITER
As the health workers strike enters its second day today (Tuesday) across Liberia, fears have been expressed about a looming humanitarian crisis, if nothing is done to get doctors and nurses back to work in the hospitals and clinics.
Since the strike began on Monday, many patients both in Monrovia and across this country have been left unattended, while relatives of others have taken them away from abandoned facilities.
Madam Hawa Jalloh, whose daughter had before Monday’s strike died in childbirth told the local OK FM live phone-in talk show on Tuesday morning that the baby left behind by her daughter was under oxygen and abandoned in the Redemption Hospital in Monrovia’s Bushrod Island suburb.
“Some children are in the hospital under oxygen but no doctor. We’re begging government to intervene before our children die,” the woman said in a desperate mood.
Reports from other rural counties say the strike has been holding in public health centers since Monday. But in few of the health facilities such as the C.H. Rennie hospital in the city of Kakata, some 72 kilometers from Monrovia. A local Journalist said on Tuesday that a small group of health workers were on shift only to cater for emergencies such as accidents.
The Health workers Union of Liberia are demanding the payment of salary arrears and provision of drugs and medical supplies in public health facilities.
After the strike took effect, the CDC government on Monday evening announced that it had immediately begun disbursement of health workers pay across Liberia.
The Minister of Finance and Development Planning, Samuel D. Tweah told a news conference that the delay in payment of salaries was due to efforts to correct errors made in the July payment, something he said was done through the controversial salary harmonization process.
Minister Tweah and the Deputy Ministers of Health and Information appealed to the Health workers to return to work on Tuesday.
“The government paid July salaries on a harmonized wage basis, and there were issues that people were left out because some of the controllers did not submit all of the names to the government,” Minister Tweah narrated.
“So a lot of the delay is not because the government doesn’t want to pay her workers. As I speak to you the government consolidated account for paying August salaries is fully funded,” Minister Tweah said.
“Money is not the issue, the issue has been ensuring that when we pay in August everybody gets their legitimate pay based on the harmonization process where nobody will be left out,” the Liberian Finance Minister added.
However, the government’s pronouncement has so far not convinced members of the Health Workers Union, who told the media on Tuesday that their strike was not just about pay.
Secretary General George Poe Williams said on Tuesday that the strike will continue until government holds a dialogue with them that will lead to a Memorandum of Understanding, stipulating timeline to address the various issues of lack of drugs and medical supplies in public health facilities.
“Amidst the current outbreak of Lassa fever, they (government) want us to work without common thing like gloves,” Mr. Williams told the local Prime FM radio on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, there are reports that an urgent meeting is slated to take place in Monrovia on Tuesday between the government and leaders of the national Health Workers Union.
The Union’s Secretary General earlier accused the government of refusing to recognize his group as a Union.