Monrovia – The attention of the National Public Health Institute (
In a press release, NPHIL said on Friday, February 15, 2019, 17 staffs of the Emergency Medical Service Center (EMS) of the National Public Health Institute of Liberia (NPHIL) were redundant in keeping with the Decent Work Act of 2015.
the release adds that the redundant staffs were contracted to provide services on behalf of the Institute in various capacities.
“They were initially contracted during the 2014 unprecedented Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak, a period when NPHIL was not in existence,” the release signed by Dr. Mosoka P. Fallah, Deputy Director General for Technical Services who is the Acting Director General, states.
“They were jointly compensated by the World Health Organization (WHO) Emergency Response Support and the Cooperative Agreement (CoAg) Project funded by the Government of the United States through the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).”
NPHIL’s release also claims that on Monday, February 18, 2019, all contractors were paid arrears owed by the WHO Emergency Response Support in keeping with the Decent Work Act.
“So far, there is an outstanding of three (3) months (October, November & December 2018) of contractual arrears from the Cooperative Agreement (CoAg) Project.
“This fund was made available periodically and the payment (US$547.32 per staff) for the period under review will be credited to individual accounts on or before 15th April 2019. This information was communicated to the redundant staff who have accepted the deadline as indicated on their payment slips for arrears paid on behalf of the WHO Emergency Response support.”
The release also “clarifies that NO redundant staff was issued employment as per the CoAg Project, and as such, demand for severance and annual leave pay as claimed by Samuel Babajuah is far from the truth. All other arrears for the WHO Emergency Response Project have been paid to all redundant staff”.
NPHIL also refutes claims by the spokesperson of the aggrieved former employees, stating that the “period Babajuah claimed he had worked for the Institute is totally erroneous”.
“NPHIL, as an Institution, came into existence on January 2017. During the EVD outbreak, the system was ran by the Emergency Management Team, and not NPHIL,” it release added.
“The Management of NPHIL values the work of its employees and does things in compliance with the Decent Work Act.”