The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Utility and health care service providers want the government to revise the directive requiring companies to retain 10 percent of staff during the 42 days lockdown. Last week, President Yoweri Museveni banned private and public transport as he announced a nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19.
To ensure the continuity of life and services, Museveni said some people in essential areas such as bank staff, mass media, health workers and utility providers among others should continue working with a skeleton staff.
However, Grace Ssali Kiwanuka, the Executive Director of Healthcare Federation, an umbrella body for private health service providers notes that while applying for travel permits, most of their members have been told that a facility cannot get permits for more than the recommended ten percent of the total staff.
According to Kiwanuka, forcing health facilities to trim staff to 10 percent will affect service delivery. Surprisingly, she says that many critical frontline workers like cleaners are left out of the arrangement.
The National Water and Sewerage Corporation-NWSC and UMEME have fronted similar arguments. Sam Apedel, the Public Relations Manager NWSC, notes that although they can reduce the office staff, they need to maintain the entire number of field staff to enable them to respond to the needs of their clients during the lockdown.
Peter Kauju, the Head of Communications at UMEME says despite the fact that they have been digitizing their services from applying for electricity and paying bills, they are faced with the challenge of limiting their field-based employees. He says that the field teams face many challenges including new installations and responding to emergencies.
However, Julius Mucunguzi, the head of communications in the Office of the Prime Minister says that the directive might not be revised since it was done with the purpose of scaling down on the number of people in workplaces.
He notes that essential service providers must also select the most critical staff, saying these are the ones that will receive clearance permits.
Mucunguzi notes that it has been agreed that all nurses and doctors receive clearance permits but the administrators must select 10 percent of the rest of support staff.
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