Over 80 health workers at the Aweil Civil Hospital in Northern Bahr el Ghazal State have resumed their duties after brief protests on Monday, threatening more protests if their grievances are not resolved.
The workers protested a delay in the payment of their October incentives by the national government and the Malaria Consortium.
“We have returned to the work, but we are still not comfortable. We protested yesterday because we are not given our money, and at last, the hospital director told us to carry on our duties and we will receive the money on Thursday. If they give us our money, that is fine and if they fail, everybody must go away from the work,’’ FloraJames Garang, one of the protesters told Radio Tamazuj.
Another health worker Obam Bol says no agreement has been reached.
“Until now there is no money at all and the deadline for the talks over this issue is Thursday. We are monitoring closely what makes payment interruptions,” he said.
Mary Stephen, also a health worker said, “We, the workers at Aweil Civil Hospital have staged protests because we spent two months without payment. The money was brought, but it was detained and it is claimed that the money didn’t arrive and a finance officer informed us that the money was released.’’
Aweil Civil Hospital director Dr. Wol Wol Akeen told Radio Tamazuj on Tuesday that the workers accepted to continue working after they were promised that they will o be paid on Friday.
“We agreed according to an email we received from the Juba office on Monday that the payment will be ready on coming Friday. The workers are only demanding incentives for one month,” he assured.