Allied health workers defiant despite govt sack threat

Health workers under different associations of Allied Health Professionals have vowed to continue striking despite termination warnings from the government. 

The health workers, who include medical clinical officers, orthopaedic and dental scientists, anaesthetists, lab scientists, medical records officers, radiographers, and pharmacy technicians, make up more than 60 percent of the public health system workforce. 

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In a joint press conference yesterday, Mr Denis Alibu, the striking Allied Health Professionals leader, said they would go to court if government terminates their members without addressing the grievances that triggered the strike.  

Both Mr Alibu and Counsel Alfred Okello from Branmark Advocates, one of the lawyers of the allied health professionals, said the government was informed about the strike and it is illegal to say the workers are absconding from duty. 

“This industrial action started on May 16, following a notice that we gave to the government on April 25, 2022. That notice was given following the provision of the Public Service Order Act. In view of that notice, we expected the government to take our matters seriously and respond accordingly to avoid the May 16 industrial action,” Mr Alibu said. 

He added: “As allied health professionals, we are engaging the legal arm and we want to assure that none of us has absconded from duty. We have just raised our grievances and we have the right to appeal to you if we feel we are not being treated well. If they declare those positions vacant, we will go by the law. If our issues are not handled then we will go further to the courts of law to offer justice in this matter because we feel this is the highest level of suppression and discrimination in the health sector.”   

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The leaders demanded that government comes clear on the amount that will be given to allied health professionals in the said salary enhancement. They said it should be in line with the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) of 2018.  

“The diploma holder should get Shs3m, certificate holder Shs1.3m and degree holder Shs4.8m. We want the government to disclose the figures captured in the new salary structure. We shall go back to work immediately after this disclosure. We also want the taxes on our salary reduced from 30 percent to 10 percent. Security officers don’t pay taxes, we also defend this country from disease,” Mr Alibu added. 

Mr Wilson Muruli Mukasa, the Public Service minister, during the media briefing on Friday: “Government is calling upon allied professional health workers, nurses and midwives to return to work on Monday (today)...Failure to do so, all these workers will be considered as having abandoned duty and resigned accordingly.” 

On the issue of figures for the health workers, he said: “Communications of the revised pay structures will follow the statutory procedures through the issuance of the Annual salary circular standing instruction to the Public Service alongside the Budget for Financial Year 2022/2023.”

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In the leaked salary structure for health workers which the Ministry later termed as “rumours,” the doctors’ salary was enhanced to Shs5m in accordance with the CBA of 2018. But for allied health professionals, nurses and consultants, the structure indicated figures that were less than what was agreed on in the CBA. 

This enhancement was from the part of the Shs400b which the government has earmarked for the enhancement of salaries of health workers and scientists. 

Mr Mukasa also said the ongoing industrial action contravenes Section 8 subsection 3a and b of the Public Service Negotiating, Consultation and Disputes Settlement Machinery Act of 2008. 

He said any commencement of industrial action should follow a 90 days’ notice after exhaustion of all avenues of reconciliation, arbitration or dispute settlement with the government. The allied health professionals gave their notice on April 25, which makes them fall short of this legal requirement. 

However, Mr Okello, while defending the striking workers in a media briefing yesterday, said the Minister’s statement is lacking in substance. 

“Under the Public Service, for anyone who works in Public Service, there is a very elaborate procedure in which you take before declaring that someone has absconded from duty. It’s not by a press statement. We want to say that that statement is illegal and is of no effect and can’t be based on removing someone from duty,” he said. 

“Under the Constitution, it is a right to freedom of assembly, every worker it is a right to unionise and it is their right to withdraw their labour according to the laws. By the time someone is appointed into the public service, they enjoy the protection and you don’t just fire them at the whims. Someone appointed into public services enjoys the security of tenure,” he added.

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Mr Okello also said the law indicates that a person should have absconded from duty for at least 30 days before you declare that he or she is no longer interested in the workplace.

“The 30 days is if they have not given you notice of where they are, the reason for their absence in the workplace. For this case, the association gave a notice explaining that the members of their association shouldn’t go to duty until they declare that they will report back,” he said.

Effects of the strike

Due to the strike by health workers, some units in public hospitals have closed or the scope of services have greatly reduced. Some patients have also been reportedly been discharged prematurely Many outpatients are also being asked to get care from private facilities. 

Mr Yusuf Muyingo, a lab technologist from the Uganda Medical Laboratory Technology Association, said medical doctors are now “working like witchdoctors” because of the absence of lab scientists. 

“You cannot work as a doctor in the absence of lab results because you will not know what you are treating. It is now based on guess work or prediction,” he said yesterday. 

Mr Benard Atibu, a medical records officer, said they have not been sending data to the Ministry of Health. Medical data is important for planning and gauging the performance of hospitals. 

“Last week in the weekly report for the Ministry of Health, the whole system is in the red zone because medical records officers have not been recording and submitting the data from hospitals,” he said.

The law 

"Under the Constitution, it is a right to freedom of assembly, every worker it is a right to unionise and it is their right to withdraw their labour according to the laws. By the time someone is appointed into the public service, they enjoy the protection and you don’t just fire them at the whims,” Mr Alfred Okello, lawyer.