DA Gauteng calls on Health MEC to address allowance paid to mortuary assistants [SOUND]

# The DA in Gauteng says the recent dispute over the risk allowance paid to mortuary assistants in the province’s forensic pathology laboratories should be a wake-up call for the Department of Health. The party’s Madeleine Hicklin says the two-day POPCRU strike exposed unresolved concerns about poor working conditions, and the 750-rand per-month risk allowance for staff working in hazardous and emotionally demanding environments. She adds that the existing allowance does not adequately reflect the nature of the work being performed: