With Christmas less than 24 hours away, the holiday holds little promise for one nurse at the Kumaka District Hospital who says she has not been paid for nearly 9 months.
Verney Benjamin, a 24-year-old nurse in Region 1, has been employed at the Kumaka District Hospital since April 20 and says she has never received a salary.
In a telephone interview with Stabroek News Benjamin stated that the Ministry of Health (MOH) has had her on a roundabout for months. Earlier this year, she was informed that she would be paid in August. In August, she said, she was told that she would be paid in October. Two months after the promised date, her issue is still unresolved.
Benjamin obtained 8 passes at the CSEC examination and achieved a nursing diploma from the Charles Rosa School of Nursing in Linden. When she was employed, she said, she presented all of the relevant documents including her ID number, TIN, and bank account number, through which funds were to be transferred by the MOH. She had also been given an official letter of employment from the hospital.
Benjamin, who expressed frustration and disappointment, related that she had even spoken to Minister of Health Dr Bheri Ramsaran last week.
When Ramsaran was contacted, he verified that Benjamin had indeed informed him of her plight. Ramsaran stated that Benjamin’s situation was “unacceptable” and he was in the process of rectifying the problem. He said, however, that it will take some time because he had been belatedly informed of the situation. He was uncertain whether Benjamin would be on the upcoming payroll but promised that he would do as much as he possibly can.
However, these promises are not enough for Benjamin. The woman, who is a mother of a 4-year-old girl, lives with her mother who is a housewife, her father who is a farmer, and her 16-year-old brother who is currently preparing for his CSEC examinations next year. She has had to resort to borrowing money to do simple things such as eat and travel. These borrowed funds, she said, cannot be repaid because she has no money.
“How will I go to work without money? You can’t function properly without the basic things for survival,” Benjamin exclaim-ed. “I feel very exploited as a public servant.”
On the advice of Minis-ter Ramsaran, Benjamin made contact with Minister of Amerindian Affairs Pauline Sukhai and was awaiting a response.
Benjamin is currently on sick leave because she cannot afford to go to work. Transportation especially, she added, is very costly in Region 1. Her sick leave is set to end on December 27 but she has planned on applying for another week.
She is also considering quitting her nursing job and applying to work at the shop of a “big businessman”. The duties at the shop, she said, will include mopping floors and will pay her $20,000 a week. According to her employment letter, she is to receive $60,224 in pay from the hospital. She was also promised a uniform allowance along with a hinterland allowance.
Though the considered job is not ideal, Benjamin said that she would rather mop floors and get paid than work and receive no money for her labour. “I have to do what I have to do to maintain my child,” she stated.
If the situation continues for much longer, Benjamin said that she will be forced to leave the job. Though she loves helping people, quitting would be her only option. The frustrated woman said though her nursing licence might be in peril if she left, she was being unpaid either way.
For now, all she can do is wait as the Christmas season passes by drearily for her and her family.
