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COVID-19 frontline workers to soon get risk allowance
Health workers protesting in front of the GPHC
Kaieteur News – Health care workers in direct contact with COVID-19 patients will be getting their risk allowance, which comes as compensation for them putting their lives on the line daily.
This was confirmed by a senior health official who also told Kaieteur News that Regional Health Officers (RHOs) are in the process of identifying these workers so that they can benefit from the allowances that will be paid out soon.
It was also confirmed by Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony during a recent interview.
Dr. Anthony had said: “We are now compiling that list, because some of them have already responded. When we compile that list, we’ll start giving those allowances, once those persons are identified as frontline workers.”
The very statement was also made in September when the Health Minister told frontline workers that the government had already started the process of paying health workers their risk allowances.
Minister Anthony had said that he wrote to all the different regions and their Regional Health Officers, asking them to identify all the frontline health workers so that the government can do the necessary computations and incorporate the risk allowance for them.
He also reminded health workers that the government had set out a $329 billion budget of which $150 million was set aside for risk allowances.
According to the Minister, there was a process that had to be followed before they started paying out the money.
The announcement was made in light of health workers engaging in protests in several parts of the country for their risk allowances and other benefits.
The protest action started in Linden when nurses from the Linden Hospital Complex staged a protest calling for better risk allowance, timely salary payments, and the provision of adequate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for them to properly do their jobs. Following that protest, nurses from the West Demerara Regional Hospital joined and eventually nurses from the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) joined too.
The final stages of the protest action taken by nurses from the GPHC saw them going as far as staying away from work until their demands were met.
The protest actions were endorsed by the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU), however, the government maintained that it was unlawful and made no sense.
“I really don’t understand their rationale. Because, first of all, if nurses want to protest, there is a procedure they have to employ. As far as I am aware, that procedure has not been put into action and, therefore, whatever they’re doing is quite illegal,” Minister Anthony had stated to the Guyana Chronicle.
It was also highlighted that several persons on the GPHC’s payroll were already receiving their risk allowances before the onset of the COVID-19 virus in March, however, these were staffers working in the infectious diseases and psychiatric wards.
The announcement was made by the Chief Executive Officer of the GPHC, George Lewis, who also stated that 257 members of staff are currently being paid their risk allowance at the hospital.
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