Aviation Front-line Workers Decry Six-month Unpaid COVID-19 Allowances

 

Front-line health workers in two of the biggest emergency care facilities at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, have decried what they described as ‘protracted delay’ in the payment of their COVID-19 and PTF allowances since April.

The Deputy Medical Director of Port Health, Dr. Abdullahi Lawal; the General Manager of the Aviation Medical Clinic, Dr. Bola Olatunji; as well as the Deputy Director of Media at the federal ministry of health, Jimi Oyetomi, spoke on the issue.

Emergency Public Health workers at the Port Health Services and Aviation Medicals at the MMIA said the Federal Government owed them six-month outstanding COVID-19 allowances.

The Port Health Unit is a department under the Federal Ministry of Health that attends to COVID-19, infectious diseases and other public emergencies at the MMIA.

Health workers who spoke to PUNCH HealthWise did on condition of anonymity for fear of sanction.

When our correspondent visited the emergency public health department at the MMIA, workers alleged that only six of the 73 health workers at the Port Health had so far been paid the April and May COVID-19 allowances.

The reason for the alleged selective payment was not explained.

Said a health worker:-

“When it comes to hazard allowances, not even the PTF palliatives was received by any of us at Port Health.”

Virtually everybody our correspondent spoke with had no idea where the problem was, but one of the workers said an unconfirmed report from the health ministry claimed that there was an error in-between the departments of administration and accounting.

“We don’t know how true this is,” the source added.

When reached via phone, the Deputy Medical Director of Port Health, Dr. Abdullahi Lawal, told PUNCH HealthWise that he could not comment on the issue, noting that he was not directly involved in the payment of health workers.

“It is the finance people in the ministry of health that you can talk to. They are in a better position to give more information on the delay. It is done centrally in Abuja,” Lawal said.

The situation in Port Health is not different from that in Aviation Medical Clinic, also domiciled at the MMIA.

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