#News: Ebola Burial Teams In Sierra Leone On Strike Over Hazard Pay

[HuffingtonPost]

FREETOWN, Oct 7 (Reuters) - Teams in charge of burying the  bodies of Ebola victims in two districts of Sierra Leone have  gone on strike over the non-payment of their weekly risk  allowances, leaders of the group said on Tuesday.                

Because the Ebola virus is highly infectious and remains  active in the corpses of victims, only specialized teams in  protective clothing are allowed to remove and dispose of the  bodies.                

A strike by the burial teams could worsen the outbreak of  Ebola in Sierra Leone, which recorded 121 deaths and scores of  new infections in one of the single deadliest days last week.   The two districts the teams cover include the  capital, Freetown.                

"We have decided to stop working until they pay us our  weekly risk allowance," Tamba Nyandemoh told Reuters. They have  not been paid for two weeks, he said.                

The teams bury between 17 and 35 bodies daily, Nyandemoh  said. Each team has 12 workers and every member of a team earns  about $100 a week.                

Sierra Leone deputy health minister Madina Rahman said the  teams have been paid through the end of September. They are only  owed for this week, she said, and the money has been released to  the banks and will be paid them later this week. She did not  comment on the demand for risk pay.                

Abdul Rahman Rarker, a supervisor of a burial team, said the  teams had been told of piles of dead bodies in and around  Waterloo, in the Western Area Rural district south of the  capital, Freetown.                

"But we cannot bury them because we are risking our lives  and those in charge are depriving us of our money," he said.                

"We don't even care if dead bodies litter all over the  city," another member of the burial team said, requesting  anonymity. "All we want is our money. We have been stigmatized  in our communities, so let the government try to pay us our  money."                

The Ebola outbreak, the worst on record has killed 3,439 out  of a total of 7,492 cases through Oct. 1, mostly in West Africa,  the World Health Organization said last week.                

Since it started in the forest region of Guinea in March,  the disease has spread to Sierra Leone and Liberia. Cases have  also been recorded in Nigeria, Senegal, the United States and  Spain.      (Reporting by Umaru Fofana; Writing by Bate Felix; Editing by  Larry King)
Source: huffingtonPost