Health workers demand enhanced allowance

By Rathindra Kuruwita

President of the Joint Council for Professions of Supplementary Medicine Ravi Kumudesh said the Supplementary Medical Services professionals had launched a token strike yesterday (09) at 8:00 a.m. in protest against the government’s refusal to grant them the Disturbance, Availability, and Transport (DAT) allowance amounting to Rs. 35,000.

Kumudesh said the Cabinet of Ministers had on Monday approved a proposal to double the DAT allowance for doctors. Now, doctors get a DAT allowance up to Rs. 70,000.

“We are actually quite happy about the decision. The doctors deserve a salary hike. However, all professionals in the health sector deserve an increment, and we are dismayed by the Cabinet’s decision against increasing the DAT allowance of other medical professionals,” Kumudesh said.

Thus, supplementary medical services professionals have decided to launch a token strike, he said.

Kumudesh said that if the government did not increase the salaries of others in the health sector, they would launch a continuous strike uniting all health sector unions.

However, they would continue to work at all pediatric, cancer and kidney hospitals, the Central Blood Bank, and the Institute of Mental Health on a voluntary basis, Kumudesh said.

“People are suffering because of the wrong policies of politicians. We have been over taxed. The government has ignored us all by only taking into account the difficulties faced by one section in the health sector,” he said.

Kumudesh told The Island that he had written to President Ranil Wickremesinghe, asking for a meeting to discuss their issues.