Dangriga Polyclinic Staffers Stage Sick-out
Members of staff at the Dangriga Polyclinic are up in arms over what they describe as an injustice being perpetrated on them. Some eight employees staged a sickout today for the second time this week. The first was on Tuesday when they learned that their annual bonus was reduced by ten percent, from sixty percent to fifty percent. The staffers are also fighting to establish their status as public officers. Reports reaching our newsroom are that staffers of several polyclinics in the south are being affected by this latest move, reportedly by the Ministry of Health. According to one affected employee, she was not informed of the decision to decrease her bonus. She describes the decision as unfair and prejudicial to the workers in the south.
Voice of: Staff Member, Dangriga Polyclinic
“Some concerned staff at the polyclinic, we are concerned about the bonus. Every year we get sixty percent. This year they told us that we are only getting fifty percent. Now, we should have been informed about this before we worked towards the bonus. Most of us depend on that money to help us with our kids at school. They should have discussed that with us since we are the ones working to get the bonus. We get like normally almost nine hundred dollars.”
Reporter
“So you mean that they took out of your monies without informing you guys?”
Voice of: Staff Member
“Yes. And the thing is that the bonus was, they have Independence, PG, Dangriga and they the Matron Roberts in Belize City but how comes it was not deducted from the Matron Roberts Polyclinic in Belize City? Why the south? Why is it that the south is always left behind and be treated this kind of way? And we are getting tired of the situation because they are treating us like we are kids. No one informed us that this is what is going to happen, that they are going to take out the ten percent of our money. Nobody informed us, no meeting, no discussion. Why the south? Because we are black, poor? They are not suppose to do us like that. If that is what the CEO is dealing with, man he has to come up because our money is our money. We are not to be treated like this.”
