MINISTRY OF HEALTH RESPOND TO MISINFORMATION PUBLISHED BY THE SAMOA OBSERVER
By: Joshua Lafoai
The Ministry of Health has responded to separate claimed published by the Samoa Observer newspaper regarding health workers compensation during the measles epidemic.
In a statement released by the Ministry of Health’s Chief Executive Officer, he clarified separate issues of misinformation regarding health workers compensation and allowances while battling the measles outbreak in late 2019.
“In response to the article ‘Govt. owes Doctors overtime pay’ dated 2nd of August 2020, the Ministry of Health clarifies all Doctors currently employed at the Ministry of Health receive their overtime every fortnight, which is additional to their normal salary every pay week,” the statement read.
The response from the ministry continues, “We assure that Doctors are appreciated, and are working to ensure that Doctors receive all their overtime, and to ensure that the payment of overtime is addressed in a timely fashion.”
This is the first merged budget for the Ministry of Health and the Director of the Ministry says it has encountered some “teething” problems that are being resolved.
The release from the Ministry then continued to address a second article regarding allowance for frontline workers during the measles epidemic.
The article, published on the Samoa Observer, 3rd of August 2020 falsely claimed that measles front line workers during the epidemic were not paid their promised allowance from 2019.
The release clarified that:
i. During the Measles epidemic, all frontline workers were paid overtime. This was received every fortnightly pay day; the overtime payment was additional to normal salary.
ii. The measles allowance was paid to staff who are not entitled to overtime but worked throughout the whole measles outbreak. These particular staff fall within the ‘non-essential’ workers’ category and do not qualify to claim overtime.
iii. The measles allowance was a one off payment that was received by the non-essential staff involved in the measles outbreak and who are not entitled to overtime. This one off measles allowance was endorsed by Cabinet upon submitting the request for compensation of staff (who do not qualify for overtime), who worked throughout the measles outbreak.
iv. Those who are entitled to claim overtime during the Measles outbreak do not qualify for the one off payment called the measles allowance. The one-off measles allowance was to compensate all the staff who are not entitled to claim any overtime.
The release from the Ministry of health has shot down the idea that frontline workers from the measles epidemic were not compensated, further stating that the allowances during the measles were pre-approved by Cabinet before being handed out.
