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Liberia-Health Workers in Liberia have threatened to lock-down the country's health system if the Liberian Government fails to implement the salary reclassification policy for health workers by 2025.
Some officials of the Liberia National Physician Assistants Association, the Liberia Nurses Association and the Midwife Association among others, on a Radio Show (The Truth Breakfast Show) on Thursday, said there is a need for the Boakai administration to see reason to implement the policy.
"We're going to resist to the last letter, that means, we will lock-down the entire health system if at all 2025 that policy is not implemented; if at all salary is not increased for our colleagues," the groups vowed.
According to them, it was the expectation of health workers in Liberia for the implementation of the policy to have kicked-off in January of this year, but up to current they have not gotten any feedback substantial enough from the government to convince their membership that the government is serious in that direction.
They asserted that a revenue of US$5 million that should have started the policy was taken away from the budget by the current government after it was being recalled leaving them (health workers) hopeless, and leaving the policy in doom.
The health workers continued that it is disheartening and they think that the government through the Ministry of Health is dragging its feet in the implementation of the policy thereby warning that they don't want it to escalate to something else.
Giving a background of the policy, the health workers mentioned that at some point in time in the past regime, one cartridge of the health workers' salary exponentially increased and for that reason they engaged the then government that hired a consultant firm so that they craft a salary policy adding that it all started in 2023 not in isolation, but with support from the Ministry of Health.
The health workers' executives said the policy was something that was so unique and it was a 39-page document that did comparative analysis, and it took into consideration Uganda, Ghana, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
The leaderships intoned that the policy did not just jump to hundred percent, but it was crafted with 70 percent of the stipulated salary which should have started in January of this year.
They said after six month (around June) they wrote the Minister of Health asking about the policy, only for her to say that she has never seen the instrument as well as the CSA Boss, but thankful for them the president for the physician assistant presented a copy of the document to the Minister after which a committee was being setup to craft the roadmap.
The leaderships noted that in midway to the roadmap they realized that people started to renege and they saw that the possibility of implementing the policy in 2025 becoming very slim.
They clarified that they are not asking for salary increment on grounds that if that is done the disparity will stay exist, because according to them some nurses are earning one hundred United States dollars with three thousand Liberian dollars while others are earning two hundred United States dollars along with five-six thousand Liberian dollars.
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In addition to that, the health workers said some of their colleagues are making two hundred and fifty United States dollars along with nine thousand Liberian dollars, and assumingly if hundred United States dollars is added across the board, it means justice will not be done to the person earning said amount.
They called on the Minister of Health to ensure that the policy is in full swim by the year 2025.
They called on the traditional leaders and religious leaders to intervene so that they cannot refer to them (health workers) as being disrespectful when they shall have embarked on the 'lockdown.'
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