Hundreds of health workers at the Ebola treatment centre in Bandajuma outside Bo yesterday downed their tools and protested in front of the clinic, demanding payment of their hazard allowances owed them since September.
The MSF-run facility is the only such in the whole of southern Sierra Leone. This left 60 patients in the Ebola ward without attention, with the MSF Emergency Coordinator, Ewald Stars, warning that they would close down the facility if the strike continued.
Following a meeting with the Bo District Medical Officer and the head of the district National Ebola Response Centre, the striking workers agreed to “partially suspend” their action.
Their spokesman and community health officer, Mohamed Mbawah, said they had only agreed to allow one-third of their colleagues to return to the ward “in the interest of our people” – an apparent reference to the patients who were drawn from around the country.
The entire staff strength is said to be 403 including nurses and cleaners.
Mbawah said they had been promised in the meeting that on Friday their allowances would be paid for the first two weeks in November and their backlog would be “immediately” looked into.
He warned that if that did not happen they would withdraw all their staff from the clinic.
Government is yet to make a statement on the situation. Even though MSF pays the national staff working for them, the risk allowance is the responsibility of the government of Sierra Leone.
This is not the first time health workers involved in the Ebola fight have gone on strike over unpaid risk allowances, despite a government announcement that fund for such payment had been approved for the next six months.
© Politico 13/11/14
