Hours after he issued approximately 27 termination letters to various categories of workers at the Linden Hospital Complex, Chief Executive Officer Rudolph Small was ordered to rescind those letters and renew the contracts of the workers.
News of the firings came to light on Thursday after APNU+AFC parliamentarian Jermaine Figueira posted two of the termination letters.
The letters, dated April 20, 2022, both with identical bodies, stated “Reference is made to your request for renewal of your employment contract. I write to inform you that after careful consideration, the management has decided that your service would no longer be required with effect from June 1st, 2022. Please be advised that this letter serves as one (1) months’ notice of this decision and your last work day will be 31st May, 2022. You are required to handover all outstanding work and properties of the institution to your supervisor to 1st June, 2022.”
They concluded, “It should be noted that the Linden Hospital Complex will be working on finalizing all outside payment to you at the earliest convenience. By a copy of this letter your supervisor is apprised of this decision and is required to ensure that there is a seamless handover. I wish to thank you for the services you have rendered during this period of your tenure.”
During his daily COVID-19 update on Friday morning, Minister of Health Dr Frank Anthony disclosed that based on the information provided to him, the majority of the workers issued with termination letters were ward maids.
“…When the ministry learnt of this, we reached out to the CEO and asked him to rescind the letters. So as of last night [Thursday], all of those letters should have been rescinded so nobody is going home. So I just want to make sure people understand that,” he said.
“We expect that all of the contracts for those persons would be renewed and be renewed for the usual duration. I think it’s probably one to two years and then, of course, like with every other contract, people’s performances would be evaluated and once they perform well they will continue to have their jobs,” Anthony added.
In a subsequent interview with the Department of Public Information to “clear the air,” Anthony said that Regional Health Officer Dr Gregory Harris would have met with the aggrieved workers yesterday and he informed them of the ministry’s decision to reverse the CEO’s ruling. Anthony added that the issue was purely an administrative one and not a policy of government as he noted that there are political activists seeking to cast blame on the government.
He said that the interests of all health workers remain paramount to the government. “We would have, however, noticed during the course of the day…the Regional Chairman for Region 10 trying to say that because they would have added some pressure to us that we would have rescinded these letters. We did not wait on the Regional Chairman or anybody from the Region to try and put any pressure on us. We recognised that something was amiss here and that we ought to correct it immediately which was what was done,” he said.
He further stated that it is “unfortunate” that the workers were issued with termination letters as opposed to renewal letters as he explained that it is now a policy that decisions would require consultation with the Ministry of Health before they are made.
The CEO now has to write to the workers informing them that their contracts have already been renewed for the stipulated duration.
In his social media post highlighting the issue, MP Figueira accused the ministry, the Regional Health Officer and Hospital CEO of being on an exercise to fire over 40 “low-level staff” of the institution.
“The hospital is currently understaffed, doctors are working beyond the 40 hours per week. Doctors, burnt out and over worked with shortages of drugs, PPE gears and equipment to work with. There are cases where one doctor running any entry unit alone.
“The CEO should seek to have a more efficient management of the hospital, ensuring that the hospital is equipped with adequate staff and materials for them to work with instead of creating a toxic work environment,” Figueira wrote.
The reason behind the firings remains unclear as calls to both the Office of the CEO and Health Minister proved unsuccessful.
