A few days after some nurses associations went public saying they were satisfied with the conditions of services, the entire healthcare sector has written to government declaring incapacitation as a result of failure by government to honour their pledges to improve their working conditions.
By Michael Gwarisa
Writing to the Health Services Board (HSB) Acting Director, Mr A Mbengeranwa, health workers comprising of the Zimbabwe Senior Hospital Doctors Association (SHDA), the Zimbabwe Nurses Association (ZINA), the Zimbabwe Government Radiographer Association (ZiGRA), Government Therapists Association (GTA), the Zimbabwe Health Workers Union (ZIHWU) and the Zimbabwe Pharmacy Technicians Associations (ZIPTA) indicated that they were withdrawing on call duties with immediate effect.
Reference is made to the above said subject that the healthcare workers associations having the negotiation space closed to them for almost a year, have resolved to declare an incapacitation of its members. The compelling factors are as follows:
“Non-claimable health sector specific allowances as agreed in CBA 2 of 2018) i.e on call, call out/ standby, night duty, nurse managers and special health allowances have not been reviewed for two years now. We remind the employer that these allowances are based on work done during odd hours with little compensation being offered by the employer. Uniform allowance is now very negligible and not but any soap or detergent,” said the letter.
With regards to donor funded nostro retention allowances, the healthcare workers said the allowances ceased in 2020 and this has led to the massive exodus of healthcare workers as there is little incentive to retain healthcare workers.
“COVID-19 risk allowances, these were also last reviewed in 2020 and as such, are now very negligible considering the exposure of the healthcare workers to the pandemic. Health workers never stopped reporting for duty even when most public servants were at home.
