Employees back to work

 By ELIZABETH MIAE

STAFF members of St John hospital at Gerehu, NCD, have agreed to return to work today after meeting with the management and representatives from the health department yesterday.

They closed the hospital gates on Monday afternoon out of frustration that their salaries were not paid on time last week.

The delay in the payment of salaries has been an ongoing issue between the management and the department.

Reports of the closure reached the minister’s office the same day in which directions were given for the department to release funding for the staff salaries. 

Funds were released on Tuesday afternoon and the hospital workers were able to receive their salaries later in the evening.

Health Minister Michael Malabag was angered by the situation and said that it was about time the department reviewed that MoA (memorandum of agreement) with St John for their management of the ambulance, health and emergency services.

Malabag said he was concerned at how funds were being used by the St John management.

St John’s chief commissioner John Waingut yesterday instructed the hospital staff to resume duties immediately.

“Nobody has the right to close the gates unless I say so after consultation with the council and the department,” he said.

“Part of the reason for the closure was that the staff did not want the public to go in and find that there’s nobody there to help them.”

Waingut told The National that they gave a detailed report to the Health Department outlining various issues that the hospital faced including the payment of salaries.

He said the meeting was basically to find a long lasting solution to the current problem and that would be to see that the payment of salaries be done on time.

Waingut called for understanding from staff that the payment of salaries was part of the process done by a government agency.

Meanwhile, officer-in-charge of the hospital Sr Rachael Kurup said the workers were satisfied with the outcome of the meeting and would resume duties today.

“We’ve aired our grievances and discussed how best we will solve this issue.”

Kurup described the hospital staff as hard working but were frustrated by the delayed payment which also affected their families.

“We see about 500 to 600 patients a day including inpatients. We do more, far and beyond than any other health facility.”

She said the public felt the pain as a result of their actions but during the stop work in the last two days, there were no casualties. 

She said a skeleton staff was on duty even when the other workers stayed away. 

Kurup stressed that they wanted the management and the department to solve the problem and have their salaries paid on time.