Ebola Health Workers Demand Unpaid Salaries and Allowances worth Shs1.9 Billion.

83 health workers who participated in managing the recent Ebola outbreak through their lawyers Makmot Kibwanga & Company Advocates have written a letter to the permanent secretary in the Health ministry demanding their salaries and allowances, amounting to a total of Shs1.9 billion.

This matter of unpaid salaries and allowances arises after a period of three months, after a statement made by Mr Jerry Jonas, an official from the World Health Organisation (WHO), in which he revealed that Shs154 billion designated for the Ebola response from development partners had not been utilized.

According to the lawyers, those who have not been paid include 13 medical doctors, five clinical officers, 20 nursing officers, 25 assistant nursing officers, one nursing assistant, one psychiatric nurse, 11 enrolled nurses, three medical lab technologists, three lab technicians, and two medical social workers.

According to the lawyers, the clients did not receive their salary for the initial month of October 22 to November 24, 2022, except for a daily allowance provided by the World Health Organisation for the months of November and December 2022.

Although Uganda was declared free of Ebola in January of this year, the letter says the workers' contract is still in effect until May.

“...since the execution of the contract you demobilized our clients on the 11th of January 2023 without re-deploying them to work elsewhere when you closed the Ebola Treatment Centre but left the contract running and salaries unpaid,” the letter reads.

In September 2022, an Ebola outbreak occurred which caused fear among the population. Statistics from the Health ministry show that 142 people were infected, 56 died, but 86 individuals were able to recover.