Health workers to strike tomorrow, doctors vow to maintain services

The Alliance of Health Trade Unions has issued an ultimatum on health authorities, threatening to , go an island wide strike from  tomorrow morning (February 1) unless their demands are met, but doctors have vowed to maintain services.

A collective of seventy-two trade unions from the health sector will take to the streets over unsolved concerns, including the contentious salary gap between physicians and other healthcare workers, which has been a source of dissatisfaction for months, President of Paramedical Services Front (PMSF) Upul Rohana said. 

“The Disturbance, Availability and Transport (DAT) allowance issue in particular is one of the professional issues that the health authorities still have the opportunity to address. If no heed is given today, 100,000 members will be compelled to be on strike at 6:30 a.m. tomorrow,” Mr. Rohana added.

But the Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) says despite the scheduled strike for tomorrow, 80-90% of health sector services will continue.

“Trade unions are entitled to defend their rights, and we are always geared up to support them in these endeavors but, the DAT allowance is a special benefit available to doctors alone and these unions are striving for an unachievable goal,” Media Secretary of the GMOA Dr. Chamil Wijesinghe emphasized.

These demands are clearly motivated by ulterior goals, although not yet evident. Such deception causes inconvenience to the nation’s health sector as well as the public, Dr. Wijesinghe stressed.

However, the majority of healthcare professionals, including nurses, have decided not to take part in tomorrow’s planned strike, Dr. Wijesinghe claimed.

In a recent letter to the Joint Council for Professions of Supplementary to Medicine, the GMOA outlined the challenges with the growing number of trade union actions over their demands.

In response to the GMOA memorandum, Trade Union Alliance Convener Lasantha Chathuranga stated that the Doctors had made many distorted claims, one of which was that the DAT allowance should only be granted to doctors. He suggested renaming the DAT allowance if Doctors object to the existing term, but other medical professionals ought to be eligible for it as well.

Meanwhile, two weeks prior, the Joint Council for Professions of Supplementary to Medicine had requested salary increases from State Minister of Finance Shehan Semasinghe and Minister of Health Dr. Ramesh Pathirana, utilizing the same formula they had formed to raise physician salaries.