Health announces payment of late salaries and will investigate payrolls at the School Hospital

Health Secretary Carla Paredes announced that starting Monday, the payment of back wages to employees of the Francisco Morazán School Hospital in Tegucigalpa will begin , which could put an end to last week’s protests .

“Our team at the central level, together with the payroll officers of this hospital, are working to ensure that the payments are charged to the workers’ accounts today,” Paredes said at a press conference at Honduras’ main health center.

The official explained that 22 million lempiras will be allocated to pay 779 employees of that hospital, while the accreditations for the rest of the staff are being processed.

Carla Paredes said that the delays in payments are due to “a systematic boycott by the same administrative staff at all levels, from those who print to those who validate, perversely delivering the documentation in inadequate and incomplete conditions.”

“The Ministry of Health assumes responsibility, but we have had actors within the Sesal who have colluded to hinder this process. Since July we have requested the payroll of employees of the School Hospital and we only got it on October 27,” he added.

According to Paredes, the payroll “was incomplete, without names, without positions, and when it arrived without a position, it did not include a salary; if it arrived without a salary, it had no structure. It never matched.”

Paredes also announced that an investigation will be opened into these alleged “ghost payrolls” in which there are staff who have never worked, and warned that ” it should not be surprising that some (employees) no longer appear in November or December because they have not complied with the law.”

He added that “horrible things” have been found in the administration of the School Hospital, including the lack of documents from management in recent years.

The Minister of Health assured that from January 2025 the hospital will be “cleansed of its rot.”