The Minister of Health and Child Care Douglas Mombeshora has dismissed plans of a strike by public hospital doctors and nurses saying “no well-meaning Zimbabwean” will go on strike when the government was looking into their grievances, reported ZimLive.
The Health Apex Council on Tuesday said its members will embark on a strike from 29 February to 02 March if the Health Service Commission continues ignoring their grievances over low salaries.
But speaking to journalists on the sidelines of an annual progress report meeting on patient safety in Harare on Wednesday, Mombeshora said the organisers of the strike were invited to formally submit their grievances to authorities. He said:
About the intended strike, we understand they wanted to start today (Wednesday) but I don’t think any well-meaning Zimbabwean would do that.
Those who want to engage in industrial action have other motives other than not serving their country’s health service.
We called them to discuss what they want the government to do for them and if not, may they tell us who is capable.
Mombeshora said the government was going to look into the health workers’ grievances but cannot address the issues at “the click of a finger”. He said:
We are on record as the Ministry of Health stating that we are looking into their concerns about bettering their conditions of service.
As I said, the government does not operate in a manner where if a grievance is raised, by the click of a finger, they are addressed.
It weighs all its workers’ issues and finds means to ensure that their working conditions are improved.
So, for those who want their working conditions improved, I hope they come to us for a dialogue and we take their matters to the Health Service Commission.
In a letter to the Health Service Commission, the Health Apex Council, which is the union representing nurses and doctors employed by the government, said health workers have become incapacitated as their meagre salaries have been eroded by hyperinflation.
Some of the grievances raised by the Health Apex Council include non-engagement of health workers on remuneration and conditions of service, exclusion of health workers on the April 2023 cost of living adjustment, non-review of health sector-specific allowances, and poor grading among health workers.
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