Health workers campaign for higher wages

COLOMBO: Union leaders representing tens of thousands of health workers in Sri Lanka said the government had agreed to meet their demands for higher wages, as spiralling inflation worsens the country’s economic crisis, Reuters reported.

“We have won a resounding victory here,” S.I. Bopitiyage, Secretary of the Public Health Inspectors Union, told a crowd of hundreds of protesters gathered in Colombo.

More than a dozen health workers unions have been striking since Feb. 7 to push the government to meet long-standing demands including salary hikes, better overtime pay and higher allowances.

The strike would not be called off till the unions — consisting of government mid-wives, pharmacists and technicians – receive assurances from the health ministry in writing, Bopitiyage said.

Some protesters said the spike in inflation, particularly food, over the past few months had made it increasingly difficult to make ends meet. Headline inflation stood at 14.2% in January and food inflation at 25% – the highest in over a decade.

The country of 22 million people is facing its worst economic crisis in years, as foreign exchange reserves drop to $2.36 billion in the face of large international debt obligations.

Soma Swarnalatha, 54, a government-appointed midwife who travelled from the town of Kegalle by bus to attend the demonstration, said she had cut down on household expenses to manage on her monthly salary of 45,000 Sri Lankan rupees ($222).

Instead of cooking gas, Swarnalatha said she was using wood to cook meals, and growing more vegetables at home. Her family of four had also stopped using their electric water heater.

“Daily expenses have become very expensive, and we want the government to hear us,” said Swarnalatha, who helps a team looking after 785 pregnant women, 19 of whom are positive for COVID-19.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Friday designated workers from the health and electricity sectors as “essential public service,” potentially making any strikes by them illegal.

“If our demands are not fulfilled, we will take to the streets again,” said Ajith Thilakratne, Co-convener of the Federation of Health Professionals, to cheering demonstrators.