By Adama Makasuba
Dr Amadou Samateh, Minister of Health and senior officials of his Ministry has dialogue with member of Association of Public Health and Environmental Officers currently on strike over alleged unpaid coronavirus allowances.
The dialogue was meant to find a solution towards addressing the sit-down strike.
However, little progress was made in the meeting though both sides are yet to reach an agreement so far over the issue.
According to the source, the association’s executive was asked to formally write to the Ministry stipulating their demands as the Ministries of Health and Finance will works in a bid to address the problem.
“I don’t want to pre-empt what was discussed right now, but actually there was no major thing that happened in our meeting yesterday. We didn’t come to (concrete) agreement. So, the Minister will work with the Minister of Finance together with the Secretary General to facilitate that,” a source told this medium.
After our press conference, we had a meeting with the authorities on Monday, but nothing has been done. We have started our sit-down strike today (6th April 2022),” Musa Nget told Kerr Fatou on phone.
The association demands its membership to be included in the new allowance package that the government approved for PhD holders and medical doctors serving the Ministry of Health.
However, the meeting of the public health officers continued with their nationwide sit-down strike, who said despite the meeting with the health minister, they couldn’t reach any agreement.
According to the Association of Public Health and Environmental Officers, in early 2021, the Ministry of Health proposed to create a specific allowance for the Health Minister, PhD holders and medical doctors serving the Ministry of Health.
“This we believe was very discriminatory and had caused unprecedented chaos not only within the public health cadre but within the entire Ministry of Health. The decision came as a shock to the cadre and since then a host of avenues have been explored for the inclusion of other cadres into the new allowance scheme,” the group recounted.
