The Labour Court on Thursday reserved judgment on a case to establish the legality of doctors’ industrial action which they embarked on since the 3rd of September this year.
Doctors have declared incapacitation as the soaring inflation has continuously eroded their salaries.
Doug Coltart, a lawyer representing Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association, said that their main argument was that the doctors were not voluntarily on strike. He said:
Doctors were not able to get to work and cannot afford basic needs, this does not amount to a job action.
We also argued that the Labour Act does not apply to doctors because they are governed by the Health Services Act. Doctors face imminent threat to their health and safety because they don’t have enough money to pay for their health insurance.
Meanwhile, nurses have also joined the strike saying they are incapacitated and overwhelmed since the doctors embarked on industrial action.
Workers are demanding that their salaries be indexed in United States dollars and be paid in the local currency using the interbank rate of the day since the government outlawed the use of all foreign currencies for domestic transactions.
More: The Herald