Self-preservation is mankind’s strongest emotions. Healthcare workers are human beings and they have a basic, fundamental entitlement to safety and protection of their lives. No worker should be unduly exposed knowingly to hazardous threats and potential life-threatening circumstances without adequate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). It is callous and insensitive for this government, or anyone, to represent the healthcare workers’ legitimate fears and concerns as political when the world is faced with a dangerous pandemic that has infected tens of millions and more than a million lives lost, including those of health care workers. In Guyana, our figures are equally staggering.
It has been seen around the world many healthcare workers, including doctors and nurses, abdicating their duties by resigning. The healthcare workers who remain on the frontline, as our heroes, willing to put themselves at risk must be accorded required protection. Healthcare workers’ lives matter and as important and essential as their services are, if we recognise this, then we must protect them so they can continue to deliver this essential service. They must be given priority.
The working conditions in the state health services are far from what is expected based on the claims by the workers. In this business of industrial relations, it is not only the employee that has a responsibility to conform to the laws, the employer has one too. The government and the hospitals have a responsibility to provide PPE for the doctors and nurses. The Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) specifically says an employee can refuse to work under any condition that threatens their safety. The Essential Services Act (ESA) is to avoid shut down and strikes in the essential services and ipso facto, the employer has a responsibility to provide all the necessary tools, safety equipment, and continuously engage with the workers’ representatives to resolve differences and problems.
The constant threats being hurled at healthcare workers must not resonate without being challenged.The responsibility to address the situation is vested in the government and hospital corporation and their failure is not only a breach of the OSHA but the spirit and intent of the ESA. Government must be a model employer. In this specific case the government is demonstrating that it is prepared to put citizens to work under conditions that not only threaten their safety, but their lives, hiding behind a misapplication of the ESA. When a law is constructed it takes into consideration responsibilities by both sides, and in this specific case the employer has a responsibility which must be addressed.
Healthcare workers are not callous, they are caring professionals and all they want is protection. It is those who deny them this protection that are callous and uncaring and placing the lives of the healthcare workers and this nation at risk, not the healthcare workers. Consideration should be given for risk allowances for all healthcare workers as an immediate response.
The failure of the Government and hospitals in providing the requisite support at this critical time when the health services workers are tasked with the responsibility to deliver a service, which to a large extent put at risk their and their families lives, brings into focus how irresponsible political and public managers can be. The persons who are protesting for improved conditions under which they have to work, are doing so fully conscious that the Government and members of the National Assembly, on both sides of the aisle, are aware of the challenges they face. They are not new to the issues and have a responsibility to demonstrate their interest, their safety and their well-being are not paramount to the people who have elected them to be there and attend to their interest.
This issue is not only about law or seeking to score political points; it is about life and death of the citizens of this country. People are getting sick and people are dying from the pandemic. There is a level of cruelty and callousness in handling the concerns of the healthcare workers, and the longer it takes to address these workers’ concerns the greater will be the adverse impact on the health of this society.
The healthcare workers are heroes. They need our protection. They are not deserving to be made sacrificial lambs. Their protest is just and fair and ought not to be politicised. The government must deal with the union, i.e. the Guyana Public Service Union, and disabuse itself of the notion that it has all the answers. The tendency to personalise and politicse rather than seeking to have dialogue towards resolution must stop. It is time for the parties to sit down and address the issue to bring about normalcy.
