Ugandan nurses have to wait for yet another month before they can receive their much long-awaited lunch allowances.
Justus Cherop Kiplangat, the president of the Uganda Nurses and Midwives Union, says the health workers will receive the allowances in August and not this month as earlier scheduled.
In a short notice issued on Wednesday, Cherop explained that the ministry of Finance released the circular for payment of the allowances long after the ministry of Public Service had already prepared a circular for July salaries.
Each qualified nurse is entitled to Shs 15,000 each day and their assistants Shs 10,000 and about Shs 70 billion has been budgeted for the allowances annually.
In May, the Health ministry indicated that the money would be availed in July following numerous threats and strikes by nurses over their lunch allowances. Back then, the ministry of Health permanent secretary Dr Diana Atwiine said the presidential directive for the lunch allowance promised in 2018 had remained unfulfilled because of the crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
When explaining the delayed payment of the allowance, Cherop said they are also pushing for the compensation of Shs 80 million to the families of nurses who succumbed to Covid-19.
At least 50 nurses have succumbed to the virus they contracted in the line of duty, according to the Uganda Nurses and Midwives Union.
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