K.H.M.H. Overtime Payments due May 15th

Andrew Baird

One of the considerations that came up during the meeting between the K.H.M.H. Workers’ Union and Prime Minister Briceño on Wednesday was a request for a 2015 M.O.U. which stipulated that the three hundred and eighty union members would have board representation.

Andrew Baird, Vice President, K.H.M.H. Workers’ Union

“From 2015 when we had a tripartite Memorandum of Understanding with Karl Heusner, the Board and the Government, a part of that MOU was for a member of the Union to be appointed to the Board of Karl Heusner.  That never came through with the previous Government so now that we spoke with the Prime Minister and the Minister of Health, we got a commitment from them to make amendments to the Karl Heusner Act to give the union that seat at the Board level.  For us it will be huge because the union as a key stakeholder, would be able to be a part of what’s going on at Karl Heusner – the decision-making.”

Altogether, over seven hundred persons are hired at the K.H.M.H., many of whom are foreign citizens brought in through bilateral trade agreements.  Many of these people will be happy to learn that the overtime they have accumulated since April of last year when COVID-19 was at its peak will be honored.  Baird said that Prime Minister Briceño has promised to have those overtime payments made to the staff no later than May fifteenth.  K.H.M.H. currently receives between twenty-five to thirty million dollars per annum from the government in subventions, a large percentage of which goes directly towards salaries.