A nursing officer, along with nine other health workers, sought assistance from the Commission regarding their unpaid remuneration for voluntary health services provided in a particular District for over three years.
Due to a government-imposed freeze on restructures within government departments, a previous restructure in the District’s Health Division could not create sufficient job positions to accommodate the available workforce, including Nursing Officers and Community Health Workers.
As a result, the District Health Services Coordinator engaged these ten health workers to voluntarily provide essential medical services to the community. Despite residing in institutional housing and delivering daily healthcare, they were not placed on the official payroll for more than three years, receiving only allowances during nationwide health campaigns.
Attempts by the District Health Services Coordinator to integrate them onto the payroll proved unsuccessful. Consequently, the complainant lodged a formal complaint against the relevant Provincial Health Authority for improper engagement without emoluments or remuneration.
The engagement of these ten casual health workers for over three years appeared to breach the Public Services (Management) Act, which stipulates that temporary engagements must not exceed 12 months.
During its inquiry, the Commission discovered that the Provincial Health Authority’s structure, though approved on December 13, 2019, was either submitted late or not at all, resulting in a lack of funding from the National Government Budget for 2020. A representative of the Provincial Health Authority indicated their intention to resubmit the structure in 2021 for funding in the 2022 National Government Budget.
Following the Commission’s intervention, the complainant was successfully given a permanent position within the Provincial Health Authority and placed on the government payroll, resolving the long-standing issue of unpaid service.
The Commission is still pursuing the complaints of the other nine (9) health workers.