Former APNU/AFC Govt rejected risk allowance proposal for nurses, healthcare workers

…Harmon dodges questions on coalition’s denial

Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo on Friday disclosed that the APNU/AFC Administration had rejected the proposal for the risk allowance for nurses and doctors in the public healthcare system to be increased.

Former Public Service Minister Tabitha Sarabo-Halley claimed on Wednesday that the coalition Government was actively considering with the Finance Ministry a substantial $100,000 allowance request from the then Ministry of Public Health for healthcare workers before it left office and when the new PPP/C Government took office, it shelved the proposal.
But Jagdeo debunked this at a press conference on Friday pointing out that records at the Finance Ministry show that the proposal for the risk allowance was denied several times.
“When we checked the records [under the APNU/AFC], several times the request went into the Ministry and they denied it. Over the last several years, the request went in for the allowances for the nurses [and other healthcare] workers and they denied it. But now they’re out in Opposition they say they were planning to give out $100,000 per month in allowance,” the Vice President posited.

Jagdeo’s revelation comes just hours after Opposition Leader Joseph Harmon claimed that the APNU/AFC Government did all it can to ensure that nurses, doctors and public servants were given decent salaries.
Harmon dodges
However, he failed to address a question posed on why the coalition failed to pay the risk allowance requested by nurses and other healthcare workers.
During a press conference also on Friday, Harmon was specifically asked why the allowances requested by the nurses and other healthcare workers were not paid at minimum when his party held office. Harmon, however, only offered that there is tangible evidence of the coalition making firm budgetary allocations for those workers.
“When you look at the package which we [APNU/AFC] give to the nurses, the public servants, the Disciplined Services you will see that it was far in excess how they were treated in previous years. Over the last five years or so, we have increased public servants’ wages by at least 67 per cent and that is no small fee. Because for the years prior to that they were getting an annual five, six or seven per cent [increase].”
In this regard, Harmon claimed that the coalition made all efforts to ensure that nurses, doctors, members of the Disciplined Services and other public servants received decent wages.
According to him, the previous Administration’s payments to these workers were based on negotiations which were held with the Unions and what was affordable at the time. He said that the level of negotiations between the former Government and the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) has always been beneficial, cordial, respectful and professional.
Asked to reveal one negotiation agreed upon by APNU/AFC and GPSU, Harmon said that they were many, but refused to divulge the relevant details. In fact, he told the reporter who asked the question that he would not get into an argument with her on this matter.

Illegal protest
Meanwhile, the management of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) on Friday evening in a statement said that it received a correspondence dated September 30, 2020, from the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU), which sought to legitimise its illegal protest action involving nurses and other healthcare workers of the GPHC in contravention of the Public Utilities Undertaking and Public Health Service Act Chapter 54:01.
“We remain deeply concerned that amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic some health care workers have resorted to industrial action which will have a negative impact on health care,” GPHC said in its statement.
The GPHC stated that since the evolution of the pandemic in Guyana, it has been working directly with the doctors and nurses branch of GPSU to improve benefits for all workers, particularly those directly involved in the treatment and care of COVID-19 patients. Towards that end, on April 3, 2020, the administration met with the doctors and nurses branch, GPSU, to discuss and resolve issues which they claimed were affecting healthcare workers emanating from the COVID-19 pandemic. The hospital’s management stated that at the conclusion of that meeting, amicable agreements were reached and the following were initiated: 1) providing appropriate training to all staff members to combat the COVID-19 virus; 2) providing transportation to take employees to and from work; 3) paying risk allowances to all staff members who are directly involved in the treatment and care of COVID-19 patients in accordance with Circular Memorandum PS: 20/19 dated December 12, 2019; 4) providing adequate and appropriate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE); 5) providing psychological support to employees who are affected by the COVID-19 virus; 6) providing meals and beverages to employees directly involved in the treatment and care of COVID-19 patients and at COVID-19 screening/triage sites; 7) continued payment of salary to employees who are on extended sick leave due to COVID-19; 8) providing care packages to employees who are affected by COVID-19; 9) providing free housing to staff members who perform duties in the COVID-19 Isolation Intensive Care Unit (IICU).
It stated that the corporation continues to take steps to ensure that staff perform their duties in a safe environment and adequate and appropriate PPEs are provided to them. Consequently, accusations of workers not having adequate PPEs, being asked to take their PPEs home for cleaning and recycling of PPEs are absolutely without merit.
“Management, while it regrets the loss of life of two healthcare providers, is horrified at the insinuation within the GPSU’s letter that two healthcare workers from the GPHC died from COVID-19. Such an uninformed statement was most unfortunate. Please be advised that none of those two healthcare workers who died were our employees,” the hospital said.
The GPHC noted that it cannot comprehend the GPSU’s posture in threatening industrial action when the matters raised in their letter have been and continue to be addressed. “The corporation remains committed to timely and constructive engagements to consider the requests of our healthcare workers and strongly advise them to refrain from accepting inappropriate advice and abandoning their duties to support further illegal protest action until every avenue provided for in the relevant legislation is exhausted,” the statement read.