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Junior health workers threaten strike

19 Jan 2021

  • Protest today as last warning to Govt.

  By Pamodi Waravita   Embarking on trade union action today (19), joint health services staffers attached to hospitals have threatened to go on strike unless several demands are addressed, with the protest to be conducted today to issue a final warning to the Government. Today’s protest will be conducted by the Joint Health Workers’ Union (JHWU) and will be carried out for an hour in front of 16 hospitals in connection with 10 demands made by junior health services staff. “This protest is the final call we make to the Ministry of Health as we hope to start a workers’ strike if the Ministry does not meet our demands,” JHWU Secretary Ven. Tempitiye Sugathananda Thera told The Morning yesterday (18). The primary demands broadly include payments for additional work, making substitute workers permanent, the establishment of an emergency risk fund and pension, and increased recruitments and allowances. “The Government is insisting that the country has returned to normal. However, that is not the situation we see in the hospitals. Wards in a number of hospitals have been closed these days due to the pandemic. A workers’ strike is needed so that the Government understands the seriousness of our demands and our situation,” said Sugathananda Thera. According to Sugathananda Thera, junior health services staff had appealed to the Ministry on a number of occasions during the past two months, including conducting protests on 2 and 10 December 2020 and 6 and 15 January 2021. Although the Government promised that these demands would be met by January 2021, there has been no progress made, Sugathananda Thera claimed. Among the list of demands, the main concern of the junior health services staff is to receive 1/30th of the salary for every extra day that they work. Sugathananda Thera said that currently, the junior health services staff work 48 hours a week (eight hours per day), with the extra sixth day being unpaid work. The monk also claimed that due to the pandemic, junior health services staffers are required to work as teams on a shift basis, outside of the hospitals to which they are attached to, for which they are not paid for the additional hours they spend outside the hospitals. “If the junior staffers are sent to quarantine because they have been exposed to Covid-19, they do not receive the salary for the days they spend in quarantine,” Sugathananda Thera said. Furthermore, the JHWU is demanding that substitute workers who have completed 180 days of work be made permanent since they do not receive a proper salary, holidays, or any relief from the authorities if faced with a risk during the ongoing pandemic. The JHWU is also requesting that an emergency risk fund be set up for all health workers, considering the prevailing pandemic. When contacted regarding the matter, Ministry of Health Secretary Dr. S.H. Munasinghe was not available for comment. The other seven demands of the JHWU include the recruitment of attendees; the increase of the fee allocated to obtain their official uniforms, from the current Rs. 9,300 per year to Rs. 15,000 per year; the issuance of the cancelled festival advance without charging an interest; the granting of an overtime rate; the formulation of a clear recruitment procedure and duty list; putting in place a programme to recruit more junior health service staff to meet the current demand; giving appointments to those who have passed their management service exams; and the granting of the entitled pension to those workers above the age of 45.


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