Unemployed environmental health officers who completed their studies at the School of Hygiene at Korle Bu in Accra, Ho and Tamale from 2011 have been absorbed into the Youth Employment Agency (YEA), pending the granting of financial clearance for their permanent employment.
The health officers, who number 1,347, have been employed by the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development for temporary engagement under the YEA for one year, beginning from May 2, 2016, subject to renewal after the expiration of their engagement.
They will be paid GH¢450 per month as non-taxable allowance.
Agreement
A memorandum of understanding (MoU) to that effect was jointly signed yesterday by the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Mr Haruna Iddrisu; the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Alhaji Collins Dauda; the Chief Executive Officer of the YEA, Mr Kwabena Beecham, and the leader of the Concerned Environmental Health Officers/Assistants, Mr Prince Dzramado.
The various metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs), according to the agreement, were to fully utilise the officers to improve and enhance their internally generated funds.
Additionally, the MoU said urgent steps would be taken by the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development and the Finance Ministry in particular to obtain financial clearance for their recruitment not later than three months after the expiration of their engagement with the YEA.
Mr Iddrisu promised the health officers that in addition to their monthly allowances, the MMDAs where they would be deployed would be responsible for their accommodation.
Alhaji Dauda, for his part, described the deployment of the officers as timely, in view of the sanitation challenges bedevilling the country.
Allaying the fears of the graduates against being short-changed, the minister gave an assurance that the MMDAs would recognise them as environmental health assistants/officers to put the knowledge they had acquired in school at the disposal of the country.
Picketing
The unemployed graduates, in November last year, picketed at the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development to demand immediate employment.
Since graduating in 2011, they had not been posted to start work and so they picketed on the premises of the ministry and slept on the corridors and in the garages of the building after vowing not to leave the premises until their concerns had been addressed.
Mr Dzramado had explained that their decision to picket stemmed from “the mishandling of their employment issues by the ministry”, saying that four batches of graduates who completed health training programmes at the various institutions four years ago were faced with frustration and hardships as they continued to stay at home unemployed.
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