Employees of government-run city health and maternity centers under the Urban Primary Health Care Services Delivery Project (UPHCSDP) protested their unpaid salary for 11 months among four other demands, Sunday.
Srijoni Bangladesh is one of NGOs working in Barisal city under the project—that have not been able to pay the health workers their salary since January.
A lot of health care workers, service providers, midwives and other employees on Sunday noon held a sit-in-protest in front of the city health center in the Kawnia area of the city.
The protesters demanded: Salaries to be set according to the national pay scale under the revenue sector, payment of salaries in arrearsand bonus, transferring the project from the Local Government Ministry to the Health Ministry, and keeping employees in their posts if any other NGO is awarded the same project.
UPHCSDP started operations in 1996. The project employs nearly 28,000 community health care workers under 10 city corporations.
In Barisal, this service started in 2006 with 102 health workers from four health centers and one maternity center.
Of the leaders of the protest, Khalilur Rahman said: “We have unpaid salaries going back to January 2018 but no action has been taken by the authorities to resolve the manner.”
Shima Sultana another protesting health care professional said: “The government has not brought our jobs under the revenue budget. We depend on the Non-Government Organization (NGO) to receive our salary. Srijoni Bangladesh is one of the NGOs working with us in the Barisal city and they are supposed to pay our salaries—which they have not done since January.”
Project Manager of Srijoni Bangladesh Md Riazuddin said: “The tenure of our 10-year contract also expired on March 31. We have already submitted an invoice of Tk68 lakh (January-March, 2018) for costing and salaries of staff to the Local Government Ministry but have not yet received an approval from them.”
Dr Matiur Rahman, chief health officer of the Barisal City Corporation (BCC), assured: “Srijoni’s invoice has been approved and the workers will be paid shorty.”
He added that another NGO Simontika from Sylhet has already been selected for the next term. “Their demands for keeping their current post are being considered by them.”
“The matter of transferring the project to revenue sector or from the Local Government Ministry to the Health Ministry will be decided by the higher level of the government policy makers,” the chief health official of BCC added.
The protesters also warned that they will go on a tougher movement if their demands are not met.