Healthcare workers unpaid for 10 months

Workers of four City Health Centres and one Maternity Centre in Barishal city staged a sit-in yesterday, demanding their unpaid salaries of the last 10 months be cleared.

Dozens of healthcare workers protested in front of the City Health Centre at Kawnia for about four hours from 11:00am.

“We haven't been paid our salaries since January 2018, and no step was taken to solve the problem,” said Khalilur Rahman, a leader of the protest.

The health and maternity centres operate under the Urban Primary Health Care Services Delivery Project of the ministry of LGRD. The project was launched in 1996, and around 28,000 healthcare workers are presently employed in 10 city corporations.

In Barishal, the service was launched in 2006 with 102 healthcare workers in four City Health Centres and one Maternity Centre. The centres are now being run after extensions of the project.

Srijoni Bangladesh, a healthcare-based NGO, has been in-charge of operating the city health and maternity centres in Barishal city under an agreement, the term of which expired recently.

Khalilur said, “The government has not brought our jobs under the revenue budget. We were dependent on an NGO for salaries. But since January, they have failed to pay us.”

Md Riazuddin, project manager of Srijoni Bangladesh, said, “We have already submitted an invoice of Tk 68 lakh (January-March 2018) for the salaries and other costs to the LGRD ministry, but it has not been approved yet. In the meantime, our 10-year contract has ended.”

He said, “Without the intervention of higher-level authorities of the government, we can't do anything.”

As a local government agency, Barishal City Corporation (BCC) oversees the overall project. When asked, Israil Hossain, acting chief executive officer of BCC, however, refused to comment on the matter.

Dr Matiur Rahman, a physician and the official supervising the health centres, said, “The LGRD ministry has decided on principle to launch a second phase of the project, for a further 10 years.”

He could not give any further details.

The healthcare workers started their agitation with a four-point demand, with the other demands being nationalisation of their jobs, transferring of the project from the LGRD to health ministry, and retention of the employees in their current positions.