By Mustapha Sesay
A group of young men and women claiming to be workers under MSF Switzerland protested on Tuesday in front of the entrance to State House in Freetown over “unfair” treatment by the National Ebola Response Centre (NERC).
The protesters, who were peaceful but determined to make their case known to President Ernest Bai Koroma and whoever cared to listen, were angered by the NERC`s decision to cut their pay.
According to the government`s revised policy on payment of Ebola frontline workers, last March was supposed to mark the end of the so-called ‘hazard payment.’
The State House protestors say they were receiving Le2m per month and that as per their contract with MSF, they should receive the same amount for March. But they said they were told by the NERC that Le 1, 200, 000 would be cut from the Le 2, 000, 000 monthly payment they usually received.
The protesters are part of a group that worked at the MSF Ebola centre in Kingtom and the French charity, which was the first international organization to join the fight against the Ebola epidemic when it struck last year, only gave them allowances. The hazard payment comes directly from NERC.
Ibrahim Sesay, one of them, said the contract agreement they signed with MSF did not indicate any reduction on the hazard payment.
They showed Politico a copy of a contract agreement purportedly signed with MSF which partly reads: “the government of Sierra Leone may stop paying hazard pay at anytime the government decides, based on prevalence of the Ebola virus in the country.”
Sadiatu Sesay, second year accounting and finance student at the Institute of Public Administration and Management (IPAM), University of Sierra Leone, said she decided to risk her life and work at the Ebola treatment centre because she wanted to contribute to the national fight against the disease.
The IPAM student said the money was important but that stopping the virus was more important and said they had succeeded in reducing the spread of the virus. Thus, she pointed out, they should also get what rightfully belong to them. She wants to continue with her studies and hopes to pay with the money.
Philip Said, another protester, narrated that prior to the Ebola outbreak he was working at the Ministry of Agriculture as messenger. He said he was sacked when his employers discovered he had a second job at an Ebola treatment center. He regretted that he had to risk his job and his life for the country, only to face this situation with NERC.
But Sidi Yaya Tunis, NERC`s communication officer, told Politico that they`d since communicated the new hazard payment policy to all the front line workers that beginning March they were going to reduce the hazard payment.
Because volunteers who were hired by MSF received a little more than those hired directly by the government, apparently there was confusion as to how to communicate this.
In Tuni`s explanation, it was arranged so that those who work at centres that no long housed Ebola patients and were receiving Le 500, 000 would now get Le 200, 000, and workers at those treatment centres which still had Ebola patients would continue to receive the normal Le 500, 000.
Tunis did not clearly explain the situation around the complaints of the aggrieved MSF workers. But he vowed that they would not continue to pay the huge risk allowances when a good number of the workers where no long exposed to the risk of Ebola.
© Politico 29/04/15
