Disgruntled healthcare
MBABANE – A group of disgruntled healthcare workers who were not confirmed as orderlies after COVID-19 were not paid after being recalled by the Ministry of Health.
The healthcare workers were recalled and given positions that were not orderlies to cover positions of those who were promoted to their former position. The new positions that they were transferred to have a Grade A2 salary scale.
A representative of the group of 14 healthcare staff told the Times SUNDAY that they had accepted their new positions even though they felt it was a demotion. He said they were shocked when they did not receive their salaries for the month of October even though they had accepted the Grade A2 offer.
“We do not want to remain unemployed, even though we feel we are being demoted and downgraded in salary, we still believe we were entitled to be paid at the end of the month. We took the job because we wanted to put the past behind us and move on. We love what we do and we believe the healthcare system needs more capable hands like us, hence we are here but it suprises us that they can offer us a position and then fail to pay us,” said the source who spoke on condition of anonymity.
OFFERED THE POSITIONS
Principal Secretary (PS) in Ministry of Health Dr. Simon Zwane confirmed that government had offered the positions to the 14 healthcare workers. He explained that these were positions left vacant after promoting others to the position of orderlies.
“You may recall that the government gave us 49 positions for orderlies. Of the 49 positions, 35 of them we used to promote serving officers and 14 were used for new appointments.
“This means that there were 35 positions that became vacant after the promotions, and these are at grade A2. So strictly speaking, we have recruited officers into A2 positions and they are not orderlies,” he said.
Quizzed on whether the newly recruited officers were paid at the end of last month, Zwane explained that the recruitment process was cumbersome and they were still being logged onto the system.
“The delays with their salaries are caused by the very recruitment processes that I have highlighted. We believe that they will get their salaries in the next run,” he added.
PERMANENT POSITIONS
The healthcare workers raised their dissatisfaction after the Ministry of Health failed to approve them for permanent positions.
Government hired 54 orderlies at the begin of the pandemic in 2020 together with five computer analysts, three Assistant HMIS analysts, four M&E analysts, 10 radiographers, 30 paramedics, 10 pharmacists and 50 nursing assistants.
Minister of Health Lizzie Nkosi announced the hiring of the 293 healthcare workers in April 2020 and said there was a great need for more health workers at the time.
It was further recommended that the orderlies be offered permanent positions after the pandemic. Some of the orderlies who were interviewed on condition of anonymity confirmed that instead of being offered a position as per the recommendation, they were downgraded to a lower salary scale of groundsmen.
The orderlies said they were made to believe that government would hire them as soon as the pandemic subsided.
APPOINTMENT LETTERS
“We were shocked to receive appointment letters into the groundsmen positions yet we were made to believe that the Ministry and the Civil Service Commission (CSC) were to appoint us as orderlies. What makes this worse is the fact that we were dropped from A4 salary scale to A2. This means a huge financial blow for us and it is not funny anymore. We worked our socks off under the belief that we will be confirmed when the pandemic ends,” said one of the orderlies.
Zwane confirmed that the Ministry was granted authority by the Ministry of Public Service to convert posts created for COVID-19 response to permanent and pensionable positions.