Dear Editor,
I am currently a Medical Technologist at the National Public Health Reference Laboratory (NPHRL) where the concerns of the staff are not being heard. Recently a circular memorandum addressing the increase of allowances to the workers in the health sector was available to the management of public health workers; however, the staff at NPHRL were not privy to this circular. Before we were aware of this circular, we approached our director Dr. Cyril Giddings in October and November of 2019 to ask for his assistance to see if the Ministry of Public Health is offering any allowance for Laboratory staff. When we sourced this information (the circular memorandum) from another Medical Technologist under the Ministry of Public Health, we quickly wrote a letter to the Permanent Secretary through our Director Dr. Cyril Giddings (following protocol).
In a recent general staff meeting we asked him if he had followed through with his promises in October and November of 2019 but again he said that he still has to check for some document despite the fact that the memorandum addressing the increase in allowances was available on the 12th of December 2019. The frustrated and overworked staff took a proactive step and handed him the letter in the general staff meeting that justifies why laboratory staff should be eligible for various allowances under the health sector. This letter was given to him on the 23rd of January 2020. On the 24th of January 2020 our Director held an emergency staff meeting where he said that he will not endorse our letter of request and since we have started this process we should continue to do it on our own.
It saddens me that every day we handle highly infectious samples that put our lives and the lives of our families at risk and he has the gall to look us in the face and say those words. We are not asking for an increase on our $87,000 after-tax salary (despite we should since we hold a Bachelor of Science Degree and have loans to repay to the University of Guyana) nor are we asking for better laboratory coats or gloves that don’t tear easily. We work with our cheap gloves and lab coats without complaint. We wear our disposable lab coats for weeks because we understand that the Ministry of Public Health has an issue with procurement. We are simply asking for a risk allowance that is only $5000 and possibly a uniform allowance.
Yours faithfully,
(Name and address provided)
