About Us
SINGAPORE, January 10 – Approximately 91 per cent of Singapore’s 68,600 public gym workers have been awarded the Covid-19 Resilience Medal, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said (January 9).
The rest did not win the award mainly because they had not contributed “substantially or sustainably” to the pandemic during the specified contribution period, he added.
A “very small number” were disqualified because of their disciplinary record.
Ong said it’s conceivable that some employers haven’t submitted their workers’ names for appointment.
“People who feel they deserve it and have not yet received the (medal) can write to the Ministry of Health (Ministry of Health) and we will appeal to their employers accordingly,” he said in a written reaction to an oral inquiry submitted. through several deputies.
Associate Professor Jamus Lim (WP-Sengkang) had asked whether the Ministry of Health would offer treatment for people who have not received the Covid-19 Resilience Medal.
Similar questions were also raised by MP Leong Mun Wai (NCMP), Yip Hon Weng (PAP-Yio Chu Kang) and Dr Tan Wu Meng (PAP-Jurong) on the number of beneficiaries, whether outsourced staff were rewarded and because. Some staff members earned the medal.
The list of winners was published in the Official Gazette of the Prime Minister’s Office on May 31 last year.
As overcoming the pandemic was a concerted national effort, Ong said the Government’s approach in conferring the medal was to be inclusive with no set quotas.
Individuals were nominated by their employers based on the eligibility criteria, which dictate that the recipient must have made substantial contributions on a sustained basis during the pandemic in these aspects:
“As the (Covid-19 Resilience Medal) is a nationwide award, other people with criminal records and public officials with disciplinary records and periods of exclusion are also disqualified,” he said.
Ong said contract workers, such as cleaners, porters and caretakers, were included in the appointment process.
About 2,000 of them won this medal.
Last December, an anonymous organization of medical professionals wrote an open letter to the Ministry of Health and NGOs, asking why many frontline actors in Singapore’s fight opposed to the crisis had been excluded from the award.
A second letter was also issued, urging the ministry to establish a channel for “all forgotten (health workers)” to come forward and be “legitimately recognized. “