Single contract planned for SKMC staff

Employees at Sheikh Khalifa Medical City (SKMC) are set to benefit from a new, streamlined employment contract, the recently appointed CEO has said.

Staff previously operated under three separate pay systems, which predated SKMC's complete handover to the Health Authority of Abu Dhabi (HA-AD).

The range of contracts contributed to considerable confusion for both management and employees at SKM, Dr Kenneth Ouriel said.

Ouriel hopes to have a single contract completed and put in place by this autumn.

"It is a headache getting it going, but it will be a real plus and I don't want to take any credit for that as it was the Health Authority."

The standardising of contracts will not be simultaneous with the reported increase in pay staff at SKMC should be receiving, said Ouriel.

"The contracts themselves simplify the form, but they are not to do with the wholesale increase in pay. That said, overall there will be increases, huge increases."

Ouriel also hoped that the single contract should help to eradicate any of the inequalities that exist in the current system.

"I'm not saying that two people who are 40 years old will make the same amount, because performance will come into that, but if they have the same experience and the same performance they will."