The government has announced that salary increases in the health sector will result in 3710 local workers receiving benefits.
On Sunday evening, a press conference was held at the President’s Office where the Minister of Health, Ahmed Naseem, the Minister of Gender, Family, and Social Services, Aishath Mohamed Didi, and the Secretary General of the National Pay Commission, Dr Mohamed Faizal, announced the specific details of the salary increases that will take effect in the health sector starting from today.
Dr. Faizal, the Secretary General of the National Pay Commission, explained that the pay structure changes would apply to all allied health fields, and that the new framework would include improvements to the pay structure.
He stated that the pay framework would take into account staff qualifications, which would encourage professional development, and address the challenges in areas where it is difficult to find local staff with the required training.
He also mentioned that the pay framework addresses the challenge of hiring trained professionals specializing in areas such as oncology in regional hospitals in the atolls. The new pay structure would benefit 3,710 local health sector employees but would not apply to expatriates working in the sector.
During the press conference, the government announced the specifics of 67 job matrices, consisting of 63 job matrices from the social sector, two from the education sector, and two from the social services field.
These job matrices would affect a total of 520 employees from regional hospitals, 471 employees from atoll hospitals, 965 employees from health centers, 1004 employees from Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH), 298 employees from Hulhumale’ Hospital, and 452 employees from the Ministry of Health and other institutions under its supervision.
Additionally, the job matrices also cover some areas under the Ministry of Gender, Family, and Social Services, the Department of Juvenile Justice under the Ministry of Home Affairs, and health sector employees involved in schools.
During the press conference, the government also provided information on the special allowances and remuneration in the health sector. The Minister of Health, Ahmed Naseem, and the Minister of Gender, Family, and Social Services, Aishath Mohamed Didi, discussed the changes and responded to questions from the media.
Furthermore, the government announced that starting today, employees who have not received the 35 percent allowance while working in government ministries will begin receiving it simultaneously with the implementation of the new pay structure.
President Solih announced yesterday in a televised address to the nation the transformative changes that are being implemented in the health sector’s wages.
The President mentioned that the changes in the pay structure for health sector employees, along with the additional 35 percent allowance for other government employees, would benefit a total of 9,838 government employees. He also stated that an annual budget of MVR 482 million would be required to support the pay increments.
