On Tuesday, nurses at Parirenyatwa Hospital engaged in a demonstration and handed a petition against the Health Services Board (HSB) which they accused of failing to properly grade them at work. The demonstration was organised by the Zimbabwe Nurses Association (ZINA).
According to the petition seen by NewZimbabwe.com, the nurses are unhappy with the HSB’s grading system which they claim has resulted in health workers being placed in wrong grades since 2009. Part of the petition reads:
We cite endless examples of people who are not in their rightful positions e.g. Senior Sisters, Junior Sisters, degree nurses (Ggeneric) are all lumped in D1 where as civil servants across the board, following harmonised senior grades, are D5 to E1; degreed ones start in D3. Other examples include Principal Pharmaceutical Technicians who are currently in D3 and D4 instead of being in D5 or E1. Senior retention allowances in the same sector are paid discriminately.
In its response the HSB said harmonisation of grades was done in line with Government Harmonisation Policy in April 2007 while appointment procedures were produced in 2010 to support this harmonisation policy.
More: NewZimbabwe.com