{"id":9210,"date":"2016-07-08T14:02:16","date_gmt":"2016-07-08T13:02:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=9210"},"modified":"2016-07-12T08:44:36","modified_gmt":"2016-07-12T07:44:36","slug":"fairness-for-ebola-fight-heroes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=9210","title":{"rendered":"Fairness for Ebola fight heroes"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An NHS biomedical scientist and Unite member, who twice volunteered in Sierra Leone during the Ebola Crisis, has called for the 200 NHS workers and academics who risked their lives to combat the deadly virus in West Africa to receive a more than \u00c2\u01414,000 bonus paid to Public Health England (PHE) volunteers who worked in the same roles.<\/p>\n

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Ian Evans, chair of Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s health care sciences national committee, travelled to Sierra Leone in 2015 and 2016 to test blood samples for Ebola. Evans\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 call came as Unite pledged to renew efforts to rectify the \u00e2\u20ac\u015bhuge inequality\u00e2\u20ac\u0165, after David Cameron said he would look into the issue at prime minister\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s questions (PMQs) on Wednesday (July 6).<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not about the money, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s about fairness. A lot of people don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want the money, but they should be given the choice,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 explained Evans.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt was actually my PHE colleagues who told me about it, because they felt quite bad. It was arranged very quietly with minimal negotiations and basically people were told not to mention it.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Health workers and scientists traveled to the Ebola zone between 2014 and 2016 to try and stem infections after a call was put out across the NHS for volunteers.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bMy colleagues went to West Africa purely for humanitarian reasons. It was quite unusual because there was also a call for scientists – normally it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just for doctors and nurses but there was a need for biological testing. It was unique because we were working with high levels of protections: wearing multiple layers and in isolation tents. it was like something out of a science fiction film,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Evans.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAfter a while people realised there was a two tier system for volunteers. A colleague of mine who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d just got married went out over Christmas for six weeks and was working next to someone doing the same job who got \u00c2\u01414,500 extra. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not right.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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About 250 staff from Public Health England (PHE), including the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) and Public Health Wales (PHW), were given the bonus, which was provided by the Department for International Development (DIFD).<\/p>\n

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But 200 volunteers from the NHS and academia have, so far, been denied the payment, even though they were working in the same life-threatening situations. While Unite emphasised that those that went to West Africa did not go for financial reward, the union made clear they would not accept a two-tier bonus system.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe have been met with a brick wall, having written twice to international development secretary, Justine Greening and received no response about addressing this huge inequality.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe prime minister\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s answer at PMQs in relation to Pauline Cafferkey, the nurse who nearly lost her life while treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone, but has yet to receive the \u00c2\u01414,000 bonus, could break this logjam,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Unite national officer for health Sarah Carpenter.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite will be renewing its efforts to get justice for those that risked their lives in fighting the Ebola virus and we will be raising this with Kate Osamor, the shadow international development secretary.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis is a matter that has taken far too long to resolve and it is about the unequal treatment for volunteers, who risked their health and their lives to go to West Africa to help those suffering desperately at a time of great need.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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After more than 11,000 deaths over nearly two years, the West Africa Ebola outbreak was finally declared over on 14 January 2016. However, The World Health Organisation has warned that more flare ups can be expected.<\/p>\n

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An NHS biomedical scientist and Unite member, who twice volunteered in Sierra Leone during the Ebola Crisis, has called for the 200 NHS workers and academics who risked their lives to combat the deadly virus in West Africa to receive a more than \u00c2\u01414,000 bonus paid to Public Health England (PHE) volunteers who worked in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4106,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[296,295],"wps_subtitle":"Unite scientists call for pay justice","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9210"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9210"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9213,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9210\/revisions\/9213"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}