Health professionals go on strike over salaries

Maldives Health Professionals Union (HPU) has begun a strike over delays in compiling pay structure and pay harmonization efforts for health sector professionals.

The protest was held on Tuesday afternoon, outside of Finance Ministry premises.

The Union had called on the government to not politicize the pay harmonization efforts. They further called on the government to give a date for when the structure and initiative would be put in place. MHPU had initiated their calls for pay rises four years back.

They add that so far, the Government had failed to take their concerns into account and therefore, they had been forced to strike. MPHU further said they would be expanding their activities to the atolls in the coming days.

President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih had pledged to increase the salaries of health and education sector professionals. On May 1st, the Government announced pay hikes for teachers.

However, lecturers in universities and colleges were exempted from this pay hike. Lecturers from Maldives National University (MNU) and Islamic University of Maldives (IUM) had protested last Sunday as well.