Unemployed Environmental Health Officers since 2021 have threatened to demonstrate if the government fails to give them financial clearance to work.
According to the health officers, all attempts to get them employed by the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources have proven futile despite completing their mandatory one-year national service.
The General Secretary of the Association, Fred Awine, revealed in an interview that although they are willing to serve the nation, the continued neglect by the government will compel them to protest if they are not posted soon
“We have been in the house for about two to three years now, and we have been following up all this while, and the Head of Local Service, who is our employer, is not telling us anything. The Ministry of Water and Sanitation, which has taken over the three schools of hygiene that are under the Ministry of Health, is also quiet, and we have been following up since 2021.
“What they tell us is that they are on it, yet still, we have been home for three years, and so we are planning to demonstrate in Tamale, if not this month, early next month,” he said in an interview monitored by The Ghana Report on Citi News.
Mr. Awine also justified their decision to reject the ministry’s proposal to employ them under the Youth Employment Agency (YEA).
“They were going to recruit us under the Youth Employment Agency like our brothers who are from the SHS, and if that is the case, why don’t I just use my SHS certificate to apply for it? Because when you are paying me the same money as the SHS leaver, it doesn’t speak well.
“If I have paid fees and have been trained as an environmental officer and you are paying me the same as an SHS certificate holder, then you are belittling me,” he added.