Medical staff protest ‘cancellation’ of salary increase despite gov’t assurance

AMMAN – While the Jordan Medical Association announced that the annual salary increase of medical staff will not be cancelled, many doctors and nurses took to social media on Sunday night to refute the statement, saying that the amount has been deducted from their salaries even though they worked non-stop during the lockdown.

Doctor Mhmd Al Daamseh wrote on his Facebook page that JD100 was deducted from his salary alongside deductions from salaries of all medical cadres dealing with coronavirus patients, who, he wrote, “have not seen their homes for over two months”.

On Monday morning, after the topic emerged on social media, Health Minister Saad Jaber said that several weeks ago, the Cabinet had taken a decision to pay a monthly bonus for medical cadres for their “tremendous efforts”.

In a press statement, the minister said that the government gives the medical sector “topmost priority” and supports the exceptional efforts of the medical staff, describing them as “the first line of defence in the battle against the coronavirus pandemic”.

“The authorities confirmed to us that doctors are excluded from the government’s decisions to suspend bonuses and salary increases, but we were surprised that JD100 were deducted from May salaries,” a doctor told the Jordan Labour Watch (JLW), according to a statement shared with The Jordan Times.

“There is discontent in the medical sector after the government’s decision to deduct the salaries of medical cadres, in spite of promises of their exclusion from the decision,” Doctor Hazem Qaralleh, the official representing public sector doctors at the Jordan Medical Association, said in a press statement.

Rapporteur of the Health and Environment Committee at the Lower House Mohammad Ayasrah told the JLW that “the decision to deduct from the salaries of workers in the medical sector is wrong, especially in this sensitive period.”

On Monday afternoon, the Jordan Medical Association council submitted a “collective resignation” in protest against failure to implement the doctors’ demands amid the efforts made during the pandemic.

In the letter, the council urged the government to immediately cancel its decision and reimburse the workers for the deductions of this month.

The collective resignation letter was signed by 11 doctors who are members of the association’s council.

The government has decided to suspend the annual salary increase for employees of public, civil and military institutions, excluding civil and military retirees, for 2020 from May 1 until December 31 due to the impact of COVID-19 on the state budget, Minister of State for Prime Ministry Affairs Sami Daoud said in mid-April.

On May 7, President of the Jordanian Medical Association Ali Obous said that Jaber contacted the prime minister to exclude medical cadres from the government’s decision, and it was supposedly approved.