By Amadou M Jadama
Health workers at Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital, Kanifing General Hospital, Bundung Maternal and Child Health Hospital and Shiekh Zayed Regional Eye Care Centre have threatened to embark on a strike if the Ministry of Health fails to pay their transport allowances.
The workers made this observation yesterday at a press conference held at Serekunda General Hospital in Kanifing.
The group revealed that a sit-down strike will start on 10-11 September, 2018 if the ministry fails to pay.
The joint task force committee was setup in June to follow up the unpaid transport allowance increment announced in the December budget speech.
Abdou Mass, working under the theatre unit at the Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital, said the four named hospitals have not been paid transport allowances for the past eight months.
He noted: “If we are not paid we are being denied our dues. We are in for our transport allowances, we cannot wait for the next one or two weeks because we have been waiting for eight to nine months now,” he complained.
Ousman Touray, the secretary of the task force committee, said: “We have been informed that the cheques have been signed in regards to transport allowance though we have not seen the signed cheques and we should not be blamed for any actions we take on 10-11 September.”
The Standard could not get immediate comments from the appropriate authorities but an anonymous source told this media that the matter will surely be resolved soon.
He would not say what caused the delay.
