Striking doctors and nurses have grudgingly called off their strike and will report for duty tomorrow following a collective bargaining agreement with the Health Service Bipartite Negotiating Panel (HSBNP) signed on Friday.
By Phyllis Mbanje
The health professionals dismissed the new offer by government as a mockery to the sacrifices they make in maintaining service delivery at hugely underfunded public hospitals, but still agreed to go back to work.
Following a meeting of the HSBNP last Thursday, it was resolved that on-call allowance for doctors of $288 per month be revised to $360. The doctors wanted the allowances to be pegged at $760.
For the nurses, their base figure for the night duty allowance (currently $50) has been set on a sliding scale ranging from $65 up to $91.
“Surely the amount is too little, but for the sake of our patients, we will go back to work on Monday,” Zimbabwe Nurses Association secretary-general, Enoch Dongo told The Standard yesterday.
He said after feedback from members, the association decided to go back to work and allow for further negotiations to take place.
However, Dongo said nurses would go back on strike if the government remained evasive over the 2016 outstanding bonuses.
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“If we do not get satisfactory responses on the bonus issue, the government should brace for another fight,” he said.
Dongo said they were expecting government to fulfill its obligations so that normalcy can return to Zimbabwe’s hospitals.
Meanwhile, the HSBNP also agreed that the government should start employing 250 doctors from March 1 and 2 000 nurses from April 1 to ease the workload for the health workers.
But Dongo said the 2 000 posts being offered were just a drop in the ocean.
“Over 4 000 nurses are roaming the streets and about 8 500 are actually required, so 2 000 is just a small number,” he said.
The government promised to create posts for other health workers.
The panel also resolved that a duty-free scheme would be replaced with an employer-assisted car loan scheme for doctors to buy vehicles.
“The bipartite should convene at the earliest opportunity to design an implementation framework for consideration and adoption by government,” Dongo said.
The resolutions have been described as a piecemeal measure by the workers, who are quite unhappy about the offer on the table.
“The nurses only got an increment of $15, while doctors got $76. This is a sad day for the health worker, who will continue to toil for no reward,” said one nurse.
Another doctor said the offer was a mockery, which only served to confirm that their employer was not sincere on improving their welfare.
Stakeholders had earlier called on the government to seriously look into the concerns of the employees, who are critical in ensuring that the nation has healthy citizens.
Meanwhile, the HSNBP said while it noted that procedures were not followed when doctors and nurses went on strike, union leaders would not face disciplinary action.
The government insisted that the principle of no work-no pay would be upheld, with striking doctors and nurses losing their leave days.
“Quarterly meetings will be held to look at conditions of service issues,” read part of the agreement.
The strike was initiated by junior doctors two weeks ago, as they demanded an immediate review of their on-call allowances and creation of posts for recently-qualified doctors.
The Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association (ZHDA) expressed “disgust” at the outcome of the HSBNP meeting, which failed to address their concerns fully.
ZHDA said the government was being arrogant by refusing to consider some of their members’ demands.
It also lambasted other union leaders for “hijacking and capturing their struggle”, but lacking the broad objective of the doctors’ struggle.
“The members will begrudgingly retreat and advise members to resume duties, as they canvass for a fresh nationwide strike, encompassing almost all health workers,” said ZHDA president, Edgar Munatsi.
The doctors vowed to fight on until their on-call allowance were revised upwards to $760.
