Monrovia - Liberian officials are pleading with
nurses and physician assistants to show up to
work on Monday amid a dispute over hazard
pay that has prompted calls for a strike in the
middle of the Ebola epidemic.
Assistant health minister Tolbert Nyenswah
said on Sunday the proposed strike would
have "very negative consequences" for the
fight against Ebola, which is believed to have
killed more than 2 300 people in Liberia and
more than 4 000 overall.
George Williams, leader of the National
Health Workers Association, said members
are demanding $700 per month in hazard pay
on top of monthly salaries that are generally
around $200 or $300. Monthly hazard pay is
currently less than $500.
The health ministry says about 1 000
members of the association are working in
treatment units across the country.
Pledges of financial aid to fight Ebola have
fallen far short of the $1bn needed by the
UN, with only one quarter of the amount
raised, a UN official said on Friday.
Mobilisation
UN deputy secretary general Jan Eliasson also
appealed for doctors, nurses and other
healthcare personnel to come forward to
work in desperately needed treatment
centres to be set up in West Africa.
On Saturday, the UN special envoy on Ebola
said the number of cases is probably doubling
every three to four weeks and the response
needs to be 20 times greater than it was at
the beginning of October.
David Nabarro warned the UN General
Assembly on Friday that without the mass
mobilisation of the world to support the
affected countries in West Africa, "it will be
impossible to get this disease quickly under
control, and the world will have to live with
the Ebola virus forever".
Nabarro said the UN knows what needs to be
done to catch up to and overtake Ebola's rapid
advance "and together we're going to do it".

Eeya

This kinda people are not meant to be owed but overpaid.