By Tonny Abet
Uganda Nurses and Midwives Union (UNMU) has announced that its members will start a strike today over low pay, joining thousands of allied health professionals who started theirs on May 16.
Mr Justus Cherop Kiplangat, the UNMU president, says they embarked on this because the government is undermining them.
“There is industrial action beginning today. We have rejected the letter from the Ministry of Public Service asking us to halt the planned industrial action,” he said.
“It [the letter] was not telling how much nurses are going to earn. It was just saying ‘we shall enhance salary’, so it doesn’t give us hope. We want to know how much they plan to enhance our salary. Doctors have been given already, the science teachers were given, so nurses are not aware of how much they will be given,” he said.
In a May 16 letter to UNMU, the Minister of Public Service, Mr Wilson Mukasa Muruli, had appealed to the nurses to halt the planned strike.
“This is to inform you that the Cabinet directed enhancement of salaries of health professionals and scientists in the Financial Year 2022/2023. Accordingly, funds have been provided in the budget for FY 2022/2023, and salaries for all health professionals, including nurses, midwives, and allied health professionals will be enhanced effective 1st July 2022,” the minister wrote.
Mr Cherop had told daily monitor earlier that the issue of salary disparity is of continuing concern to UNMU. He said a nurse with a degree gets Shs2m and a medical doctor with a degree gets around Shs4m, the amounts he said send signals that nurses are not valued even when they spend around the same period in school to obtain a degree.
Mr Cherop said they need the salary for nurses with degrees to be increased from Shs2m to Shs4.8m as doctors get Shs5m in the next financial year.
Their strike is at a time when thousands of allied health professionals have laid down their tools over low pay and poor working conditions.
The World Health Organisation and the Heath ministry said the strike is having a devastating effect on the healthcare.
Ms Catherine Bitarakwate, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Public Service, told this publication earlier that Shs400b has been earmarked for enhancing the salaries of scientists and all health workers. She, however, said the ministry is yet to announce the final salary structure.
