Gratuity to pension switch a backward step – former Health Minister

Doctors’ benefits yanked

… will send doctors into welcoming arms of Caribbean, US

A former Health Minister is describing the step taken by Government to move doctors from gratuity to pensionable establishments as a “retrograde” step that will only drive highly trained professionals to other, greener pastures.

According to Dr Bheri Ramsarran, former Health Minister under the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Government, the gratuity was intended to be an incentive to doctors after their years of study, sometimes half a decade.

He expressed worry that doctors will be de-incentivised and will move away to other jurisdictions such as Caribbean countries and even the United States, where their skill and talent will be welcomed.

“It’s a retrograde step and most likely we will see an exodus of those professionals, a very costly slice of human resource of the country. They will simply leave when their contract is finished,” he said.

“What’s more, it’s not being implemented for people who just graduated. It’s even going back to persons who graduated a few years (ago), but are still on Government contracts, predominantly from the Cuban/Guyana programme for training doctors.”

“So we have a significant portion of the health sector workforce which is now affected negatively, which is dissatisfied and which we might very well see leaving us as soon as they can. They’re very welcome in the small islands and of course, North America. Some might even be preparing for that.”

He urged the Government to revert to the gratuity arrangements, which allowed the doctors to get the money when they needed it. Ramsarran stressed that the arrangement was aimed at attracting and retaining human resource.

“Who knows, you might find people not wanting to take up scholarships now, if they know they’re coming back to this type of (arrangement). You might very well have a dearth of applicants. The retrograde step of forcing them back to the old establishment where they will get a pension at the end of their work lives is obviously, to anyone, dumb.”

According to the documents seen by Guyana Times, the changes apply to temporary workers and contract workers with a GS: 3 to GS: 14 salary scale. It is being done under the authority of the Public Service Commission.

Workers in these categories had until Friday last before it went into effect. According to reports, there have been no public consultations with the affected doctors before the implementation of this policy.

During a press conference at freedom house on Thursday, Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo had flayed the Government for its clandestine move. He stated that by forcing doctors to accept the unpopular pension scheme, doctors who joined with expectations of gratuity will exit the public service as soon as their contract comes up renewal.

The former President noted that if this happens, a health sector already suffering from drug shortages will be hit even further by a shortage of personnel, including doctors and nurses.

While a pension is a contributory arrangement, gratuity is a sum of money paid at the end of a stipulated tenure of service or upon retirement. In most cases there is a prescribed formula for calculating gratuity, thus removing the onus of determining payments from the employer.

It is understood that doctors were eligible, upon satisfactory service being provided, for gratuity at a rate of 22.5 per cent of their basic salary, calculated on the basis of three months. However the doctor could have chosen to receive their gratuity at six months intervals.