Linden Hospital gratuity dispute…
OFFICIALS of the Health Ministry met Friday with those from Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) and Linden Hospital Complex management, to address the dissatisfaction of staffers at the institution over their gratuity payment. However, the Minister, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy said there is not much his ministry can do, because the matter is under the purview of the Finance Ministry.
“The Ministry of Finance wants the payment to be regularized. Now there are thousands of other workers, too, who have to wait until after six months to receive their gratuity,” he said.
Last Saturday, some 200 workers of the Linden Hospital continued a sit-in, to protest their conditions of employment but Ramsammy said they are not on strike.
Rather, they are engaged in a protest during their lunch hours, he stated.
They began to protest earlier last week, when the course of action was a go-slow but it developed into a sit-in on Thursday, and reports said only the critically ill were attended while the staff insisted that their employment status be regularized.
Ramsammy said the payment schedules for February have already been prepared and do not include the gratuity, as being demanded by the protesters.
He said the payments requested are included in the March 2011 schedule, which is, currently, being prepared but the talks are ongoing to see whether the beneficiaries can be paid before March pay day.
In a previous interview, Ramsammy had told the Guyana Chronicle that, originally, gratuity was payable in February and August at 22.5 percent of salary after six months service.
The position of the Finance Ministry is that the six months end in March and September and payments before then are effected one month early.
“The question is not whether they are going to be paid their gratuity or not, it is whether we will continue to pay before the due time. The Ministry of Finance said it should be paid like the other workers’ gratuity,” Ramsammy said Friday.     
He declared that the GPSU is non-receptive to negotiations, although it is well aware of 2011 payment schedule.
“The GPSU was aware that the Ministry of Finance agreed to pay in August (in 2010) on the condition that payments would be made in March and September this year,” Ramsammy maintained.
The Linden Hospital Complex is the key health care delivery institution in Region 10 (Upper Demerara/Upper Berbice).