A strike by medical and ancillary staff over the payment of gratuity has affected services at the Linden Hospital Complex (LHC) and the Upper Demerara and Kwakwani hospitals.
Workers were on a go-slow last week and a sit-in started on Thursday—both actions were sanctioned by the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU), which represents them. According to union representative Maurice Butters, the decision was taken as a consequence of a circular passed on to workers indicating that their gratuity will be included on the August payroll. “One time they are telling us that we are not traditional public servants and then they bringing these circulars from the public service for us to adhere to,” Butters told Stabroek News. He said the GPSU had written to the Ministry of Health’s Permanent Secretary Hydar Ally, and a meeting was held in 2010, where it was agreed that the ministry would have gotten a clear directive based on an agreement with the union, as to what would be the future for gratuity payment.
According to Butters, the ministry had promised to make contact with the union on the way forward about the correct month when the gratuity payment would be rightly payable so that the workers would have been given sufficient time to make the necessary adjustment, if there were any changes. “Lo and behold, we get a circular from the management telling employees that gratuity would be paid in March and September,” he said.
The GPSU has since written to Ally indicating that in the light of not having had a response from the ministry in a timely manner, the workers should be paid their gratuity with the February payroll, in keeping with the status quo of the LHC, after a response would have been communicated to the union.
A walk through the hospital yesterday saw basic services being affected. Several patients complained that they had been at the facility for hours without seeing a doctor or being attended to by any nurse. “I am here since before one o’clock and its now minutes to four and I haven’t seen a doctor yet. I have a serious problem with my 23 days old baby and can’t get any attention,” complained one patient. Others had similar complaints.
In 1996, when the hospital was taken over by the Ministry of Health from the Bauxite Industry Development Corporation, then Minister of Health Gail Teixeira had told the staff at a meeting that the hospital would have been corporatised and in the interim staff would have been offered contracts to compensate for the break in the pension period and a gratuity would have been paid in lieu of pension.
The strike action has resulted in staff raising a number of other issues that are affecting them. According to nurses, they are not given sufficient time off to do upgrades which are required for them to have their licences renewed. They said that the LHC administration has approved only five hours per week for such activities. “Every two years, you have to do something and in order for me to do something I have to get released and here it is that you are not releasing me so how you expect me to do,” said a nurse, whose sentiments were shared by others. “I want to speak with [Minister of Health] Dr Leslie Ramsammy because they are contradicting themselves, wanting this out of us and not giving us the time to do it,” stated another nurse.
It was further explained that should any staff, including nurses, go off on maternity leave, that time would be deducted from their gratuity. “That is our pension and it’s not fair they telling us don’t get pregnant or don’t get sick or if we do then we can’t get gratuity. That is sickening. That money is our pension and Ramsammy need to relook at this situation,” another nurse said.
Nurses said that they are prepared to represent a sister who was denied her gratuity because she was at home sick. They said that while at home in ill health, the nurse spent endless hours working with students, resulting in them gaining 100 percent passes last year.
Staff at the LHC receive 22 ½ percent of their basic salary as gratuity, which is incorporated in their payroll on a half-yearly basis. Staff expressed the view that they are punished twice, since deductions are made from their salaries if they are absent for any given period and a further deduction is made from their gratuity.
Stating that they have no confidence in the administration of the LHC, they said that they attempted to get answers from the LHC’s Administrator Trevor Vangendren but failed. Efforts by Stabroek News to contact Vangendren and Chief Executive Officer Gordon Gumbs were unsuccessful.
According to Butters, the GPSU and the hospital’s administration had met and it was said that Permanent Secretary Ally had indicated that he was in the process of approaching the Ministry of Finance to reopen discussions about the gratuity payment, in order to resolve the matter and to work out the way forward. This information was conveyed to union representatives by Vangendren. “He asked that the existing action be put on hold until the matter is settled. The branch responded that they were only prepared to do so only after they would have seen positive movements in this direction, since they have lost confidence in the management,” Butters explained.
A similar situation occurred last year, resulting in a strike by the nurses and ancillary staff of the LHC. This time around, the union said, it is not prepared to have the situation return to normalcy unless the issues, especially the gratuity and the deductions from salaries, are absolutely ironed out.
