Tag Archives: Health Workers

Unpaid salaries: Akeredolu appeals to striking Ondo health workers

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The Governor of Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu, on Monday begged health workers who have been on an indefinite strike to return to work, as his government makes efforts to begin the payment of workers’ salaries.

He also set up a special committee, headed by the Accountant General of the state, Akindolire Laolu, to look into ways of liquidating the accumulated salaries of workers.

“I’m appealing to the doctors and health workers in the state who are currently on strike to please resume work,” he pleaded.

“Let them come back and we can now sit and have a discussion on the table through negotiations.”

Speaking to civil servants on Monday while resuming office, Mr. Akeredolu noted that the workers deserved their monthly wages.

He also promised that workers’ welfare would be a priority under his administration.

“I am aware of the agonies you (civil servants) are going through without being paid your salaries,” he said.

He, however, assured that he would ensure that civil servants got their salaries and arrears as and when due.

Mr. Akeredolu urged the striking health workers to return to work for the sake of patients at the government hospitals.

 

Source: Premium Times

Ebola Workers In Sierra Leone Dump Bodies

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Burial workers in Sierra Leone have dumped bodies in the street outside a hospital in protest at authorities’ failure to pay bonuses for handling Ebola victims.

Residents said up to 15 corpses had been abandoned in the eastern town of Kenema, three of them at a hospital entrance to stop people entering. The head of the district Ebola Response Team, Abdul Wahab Wan, said on Tuesday that the bodies included those of two babies.

A spokesman for the striking workers, who asked not to be identified, said they had not been paid their weekly hazard allowance for seven weeks.

Authorities acknowledged the money had not been paid but said that all the striking members of the Ebola Burial Team would be dismissed.

“Displaying corpses in a very, very inhumane manner is completely unacceptable,” said Sidi Yahya Tunis, the spokesman for the National Ebola Response Centre.

He added that the central government had paid the money to the district health management team.

“Somebody somewhere needs to be investigated (to find out) where these monies have been going,” he told Reuters news agency.

Healthcare workers have repeatedly gone on strike in Liberia and Sierra Leone over pay and dangerous working conditions. Two weeks ago, workers walked off the job at a clinic in Bo in Sierra Leone.

Sierra Leone has become the biggest hotspot in the West African Ebola epidemic, which has killed nearly 5,500 people since March.

The outbreak appears to be coming under control in neighbouring Liberia and Guinea, but infection rates have accelerated in Sierra Leone.

Source – Punch NG

Guinea Hunger Strike at Village Occupation after Ebola Worker Killings

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A hunger strike has been launched in Guinea in protest against the military’s presence in a village where an Ebola awareness team was killed in September.

About 20 leaders from the southern Wome village are camping outside parliament since launching the strike. The “military occupation” of Wome had forced some 6,000 people to flee their homes, an opposition leader said. The government and military have not commented on the allegations.

In September, the government accused villagers of murdering eight people raising awareness about Ebola.

Some of the bodies – of health workers, local officials and journalists – were found in a septic tank in Wome some 50km (30 miles) from the south-eastern city of Nzerekore.

The motive for the attack was not clear, but it came at a time when many communities either denied the existence of Ebola or accused health workers of spreading the virus.

 

Liberia Health Workers’ Monday Strike, Setback on Ebola Efforts

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Thousands of Liberian healthcare workers are set to begin an indefinite strike at midnight on Monday which could undermine the country’s effort to stop the spread of the deadly Ebola virus and leave several hundred patients without care.

Health workers in the West African nation threatened to abandon hundreds of patients in Ebola treatment units, clinics and hospitals if demands for better incentives, working conditions and protective equipment were not met.

A meeting to resolve their grievances on Oct. 10 ended in a deadlock with the government refusing the meet their demands, said George Williams, secretary general of the National Health Workers Association of Liberia.

“The government of Liberia has not changed their posture. They do not want to engage us so that we can talk,” Williams said. “Time is running out, by 1200 midnight on Monday morning, we will be starting the go-slow action.”

Liberia’s deputy health minister Matthew Flomo said the government was not aware of health workers planning to strike.

“What I do know is that the government has reached an agreement with health workers for their payment, which will be as of September, beginning Monday,” Flomo said.

But Williams denied the workers had reached any agreement with the government. He accused the administration of trying to divide the workers.

He, however, acknowledged that the strike would undermine the gains being made in the fight against Ebola in Liberia, but said they were confident the public would understand the reason behind their action.

“The problem is the government. The public should get angry with the government, not with us,” Williams said

“The public is aware that health workers are dying because they are not protected. Nobody is supposed to die while protecting lives, we have been calling on the government to give us protective gear but they are not doing so,” he said.

New Ebola Strain Penetrates Congo Democratic Republic

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DRC ebola

Health Minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Felix Numbi confirms that the Ebola outbreak in the Equateur province has a seemingly different strain of Ebola to that of West Africa. Revealing that the disease in the Equateur province has killed 13 already including health workers, was found in an isolated area.

ebola

This is reportedly the first case of Ebola outside West Africa,  and Dr. Numbi said that a quarantine area has is being set up to manage the outbreak.

Congo has been hit by Ebola outbreaks seven times before, but the two deaths are the first ones in recent times.

Ebola news

A total of 1,427 people have died from the virus so far, while an estimation of 2,615 people have been infected with Ebola since March in West Africa.