Govt. agrees to pay Rs. 1,000 monthly allowance to health sector employees

By Charumini de Silva

Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake yesterday agreed to pay a monthly allowance of Rs. 1,000 to 40,000 health sector employees who work under 27 health grades.

Karunanayake approved this proposal during a trade union meeting held at the Finance Ministry yesterday under the patronage of Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne and Director General of Health Services Palitha Mahipala.

The Government will allocate Rs. 480 million annually.

Karunanayake confirmed that this allowance would be implemented from next month.

“We have a great responsibility to fulfill the general public’s demands with limited resources. During the discussions I showed the unions that whatever funds were being divided amongst them was money that the Government had been able to collect from innocent taxpayers.”

Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne said that the reason the allowance was only being given to the health sector was that its workers bore the responsibility of people’s lives.

Commending the Government’s move, trade unions stated that they would not support any protest that would disrupt the daily operation of hospitals.