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| The government has promised to address the demands of the medical workers |
KAMPALA, Dec 24 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Doctors under the Uganda Medical Association (UMA) have ended their 29-day sit-down strike after the government committed to progressively handle their grievances.
UMA president, Dr Samuel Oledo said medical workers have resumed work Thursday, saying the government has finally committed to addressing their grievances of low pay, understaffing, compensating families of those that died of COVID-19 and restocking of drugs and sundries.
He said doctors will receive their enhanced salary of Shs 5million starting July next year when the new financial year starts. According to him, the government has also committed to considering getting them duty-free vehicles and is now putting together with members of a task force to handle issues of compensation.
UMA has already submitted the names of seven members to sit on the committee. These will be representing and negotiating for families of the 85 health workers that died, of whom 35 were medical doctors.
“Today marks our 29th day, and today marks the day that you can see our faces we’re speaking with some little joy on our faces indicating that we have the absolute assurance to Ugandans that our patients matter most. And giving a service is an inherited right that doctors have inside them,” said Oledo.
The doctors went on strike last month with threats of not budging until the actualization of their salary enhancement which has been pending since 2017. However, following sideline negotiations with the government, UMA has called off the strike and given the government up to April next year to start implementing some of their demands.
According to the new deal, while junior doctors will earn Shs 5 million, pharmacists will bag Shs 4.8 million whereas a consultant will earn Shs 17 million. A senior consultant will earn Shs 20 million together with a perk of a chauffeur-driven car.
Doctors say their negotiations were crosscutting all through the medical fraternity as the changes will also be affected for graduate nurses and medical laboratory professionals who only announced their strike on Monday.
However, the medical laboratory professionals insist that their grievances haven’t been attended to and that they are continuing with their industrial action. Uganda Medical Laboratory Technology Association (UMLTA) secretary-general Patrick Dennis Alibu said they want the government to pay graduate lab professionals, the same pay of Shs 5million as medical doctors.
“Our position is not in line with theirs, the industrial action we held was strictly under the association of the lab technicians. So if they call off theirs based on the negotiations they have had with the government, as lab techs, we have not been engaged, ours remains. Then the salary disparities, the negotiation has not taken effect to our interest. So if the doctors have theirs that is them, this is the stand of the lab fraternity. Our stand is we are still on strike,” said Alibu.
But, Oledo says, the absence of the lab technicians will not stop them from attending to patients and that they are better off calling off the latest strike. According to him, in the new deal, medical laboratory technicians have also been catered for and will have their salaries enhanced as well. — NNN-AGENCIES
