Prime
Sacked Covid workers set conditions for resuming work
The president of UMA, Dr Samuel Odong Oledo (centre), accompanied by (left to right) nursing officer Maria Nantayi, the UMA chair of welfare, Dr Alone Nahabwe, and UMA’s deputy secretary general Faith Nabushawo addresses a press conference at Mulago Guest House in Kampala on March 30, 2022. PHOTO/ISAAC KASAMANI
What you need to know:
- The workers were terminated on March 30 when they were still demanding their salary arrears amid the decline in Covid-19 cases in hospitals.
The Covid-19 frontline health workers, whose contracts were terminated by the Ministry of Health in March, have said they will only return if the government gives them permanent employment.
The demand is coming amid rising numbers of Covid-19 infections in the country.
Ms Bonietor Amanya, a former nursing officer at Mulago Hospital and the national mobiliser of the terminated workers, said they are willing to come back and work.
“As long as we are paid our arrears and absorbed into the main government system, then we can come back and work. We have the experience because we have handled the patients during the first and second wave,” she told this publication yesterday.
Background
The workers were terminated on March 30 when they were still demanding their salary arrears amid the decline in Covid-19 cases in hospitals.
“We have contacted all the concerned offices. We wrote to the Ministry of Health, and we wrote to the President himself. We even wrote a petition to the Speaker of Parliament,” Ms Amanya said.
“In July 2021, the President appreciated the work that was done by the frontline –medical people that fought to make sure that Uganda is Covid-free. He gave a directive to the Ministry of Health to accord permanent jobs to the medical people that fought in the pandemic, unfortunately, Dr Diana Atwine [the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health], gave us termination as appreciation,” she added.
Ministry responds
Mr Emmanuel Ainebyoona, the Ministry of Health spokesperson, told this newspaper yesterday that the number of Covid-19 patients is still low and hospitals are managing without the terminated workers.
“Recruiting more workers is the decision of the strategic committee chaired by the minister, so I cannot comment [about it],” he said, when asked about their plans in case Covid-19 hospitalisation increases.
About the patients
According to the Ministry of Health statistics, only six Covid-19 patients are currently hospitalised amid the rising infections. One death was reported by the ministry yesterday.
A total of 3,601 have died out of the 166,237 people who have contracted the virus since the outbreak of the virus in 2020.
