Mothers care for their sick children in front of the pediatric word at Rumbek General Hospital in Rumbek on Thursday, October 7, 2021 | Credit | Courtesy

Health workers at Rumbek State Hospital, a key referral facility in Lakes State, have gone on strike over unpaid incentives for the past four months.

The strike began on Tuesday, December 10.

Monica Yar, a registered midwife at the hospital, explained that they were only paid for July in September and have not received payments for August, September, October, or November.

She stated that while the incentives are funded by a UN agency, the delay in payments has left workers struggling, with many unable to provide for their families.

Yar shared that despite continuing to work, they have been doing so without compensation, leaving their children suffering from hunger due to the delays.

“We are working for the families and if you come to work and go back home empty that means your children are going to be suffering and they will not eat any food and sometimes you can lose their lives,” said Yar.

“We are approaching Christmas, of which most of the children need to wear new clothes, and they want to go for their happiness, and if you have nothing to give them,” she said.

“We reached the stages where children are fighting with us when we tell them that you don’t have anything, then they do ask why do you go to work if you don’t have anything? These are some of the challenge questions that we always face from our kids at home.”

Dr. Teran Madit Teran who is the Medical Director of Rumbek State Hospital confirmed the ongoing strike.

According to him, since the UN-funded initiative that aims at improving health services in the state started in July, the workers received incentives only once.

“One of their demand is an incentive like four (4) months, because since this project started they received only one month which is the incentive for July, which they received in September meaning that they are demanding four months incentives,” Dr Madit said.

Meanwhile, James Salah Makoi who is also a registered midwife said, the peaceful strike has resulted in the closure of operations at the hospital.

“The whole hospital is closed down and the views of the staff is that until they are paid their incentives, then simply all the staff will start to resume their work peacefully since it is already a peaceful strike,” said Salah.