Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health Malcolm Watkins yesterday said the two week bonus announced by President Irfaan Ali is the “risk allowance” that has been promised to health care workers, while the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) has maintained that the position was contrary to an informal agreement that had been reached.
“What the President said is all health care workers will receive two weeks’ pay as risk allowance in the month of December,” Watkins said in response to questions from Stabroek News yesterday.
Speaking with media following an event at the Ministry’s Material Manage-ment Unit (MMU), Watkins explained that the “bonus” announced by Ali is government’s “first initiative for risk allowance.”
“I’m sure there is a plan for long term continuity of risk allowance,” he further said, before adding that there is still no concrete idea of how much the bonus will cost the ministry and how many persons will benefit.
“The actual numbers are not yet calculated—that will come from the central level….numbers and actual cost to my ministry [are] still to be determined by the Ministry of Finance…[but] the classification is very broad and likely to include most of the Ministry of Health staff,” he concluded.
Watkins’ statement came on the same day that the GPSU made public objections from health workers to announced bonus.
According to the letter made public by the GPSU, health workers see the proffered bonus as “blatant disrespect”.
“The imposition is strongly rejected and we demand to have our union involved in all decisions concerning our conditions of service,” it reads
The missive, which is addressed to the press, is a direct response to articles from several media houses which indicated that some health workers were “satisfied” with the bonus. The GPSU stressed that these workers were not “speaking or acting on behalf of the majority of the workers.”
Health care workers, the GPSU maintained, have mandated the union to act on their behalf in keeping with the Trade Union Act.
The letter was duly accompanied with the signature of more than 200 health workers from the public hospitals at New Amsterdam, Skeldon and Linden as well as from the National Psychiatric Hospital.
Last week Thursday Ali announced that all “health care professionals” would be classified as frontline workers and receive a bonus equivalent to two weeks’ pay as part of his government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
He made the announcement while delivering the feature address at the Commissioning of the Leonora Smart Health Care Facility, where he explained that the reclassification and bonus are part of his September promise to protesting health workers to address their concerns before the end of the year.
Many health care workers staged a series of public protests in September to lobby for their reclassification as “frontline workers” in light of efforts to manage the COVID-19 response and therefore be eligible to receive a risk allowance. They also sought an increase in the risk allowance being offered, access to more personal protective equipment and a raise of pay.
The GPSU responded the next day by denouncing the bonus as arbitrary.
Accusing the government of taking an “anti-Trade Union approach,” GPSU 1st Vice President Dawn Gardener said the decision was in conflict with the Trade Union Recognition Act, and International Labour Organization (ILO) Conventions that were ratified by the Government of Guyana and are in force.
“The Union views this announcement as arbitrary, given that the bargaining process was not respected to ensure fairness to Health Care Workers, who are battling to protect the nation by providing quality healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic, with little or no resources and at risk to their lives and by extension that of their families,” Gardener said in a statement
The union went on to note that when industrial action was suspended in October the payment of a risk allowance was agreed in principle between government representatives and the Union.
As a result, GPSU said it was firm on the position and is of the view that it should be retroactive from January, 2020
According to the union’s statement, health care workers have been battling COVID-19 for approximately nine months and continuing, not two weeks. During this time, it said, these workers have faced tremendous challenges and it argued that this would continue until the threat subsides or is permanently removed.
