Tobago House of Assembly (THA) Secretary of Health, Wellness and Social Protection Dr Faith BYisrael has confirmed that healthcare workers on the island have not yet received their promised COVID-19 bonus payments.
Dr Yisrael was speaking on Tobago Updates morning show on Tuesday (December 13).
Last week, healthcare workers in Trinidad received their payments, while their Tobago counterparts raised an alarm that none were forthcoming to them.
According to the Health Secretary, at the last sitting of the assembly, a decision was taken to move forward with the payments which were promised to healthcare workers from the island, during the PDP’s campaigning. She said the number of workers was tallied and they are now pooling together the money to arrange payments.
With regards to the Government’s promise, Dr BYisrael explained that before the national budget was read in October, Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh called and informed her of the plan to make the bonus available.
She said at that point he asked for a confirmed number of healthcare workers on the island, and this was sent thereafter, “broken down.”
“So when he spoke about that in the Budget presentation, it did include the Tobago Regional Health Authority.”
She added that based on the Cabinet note, health care workers were considered as both medical and non-medical staff including cleaners and groundsmen who worked during the pandemic.
She explained that the payments would be based on the period March 11, 2020 until May 31, 2022.
“So if you worked for more than one year, even a year and a day, you would get paid to the equivalent of one month’s salary if you are monthly paid or two fortnight’s salary if you are daily paid. If you worked six months to one year, you are entitled to 50 per cent of your salary and if you worked less than six months, you are entitled to 25 per cent of your salary.”
Dr BYisrael clarified the payment would only be equal to one month’s basic salary minus the allowances.
Noting that she observed Trinidad staff were paid last week, the Health Secretary said when he noticed Tobagonians were being delayed, she started doing some micromanaging and began making phone calls to various administrators and the Ministry of Finance to get an update.
“That is the point where we realised yesterday that even though the instruction was given since last week Monday to send it off, that somebody, in Tobago, did not do that until yesterday.”
She said because the file was only sent on Monday, she could not confirm when the funds would be available in Tobago.
“What I can say, though, is that the background work has already been done. The TRHA has already identified all of the people who need to be paid, how much they need to be paid and they are just literally waiting for us to say to the TRHA, ‘Here is the money, you do your processing.’”
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