Maravi

Negotiate, compromise - threats won’t do

Negotiate, compromise - threats won’t do
Written by Editor

Labour disputes can never be resolved by threats. Labour disputes can only be resolved through negotiations. And when you negotiate, you have to accept the integrity of the other side. When you negotiate, you must be prepared to compromise. It is therefore unwise and unacceptable for government officials to issue threats to the striking nurses. Their strike may be undesirable but it cannot to be said to be illegitimate. They have a genuine case which should be listened to by those in authority.

Clearly, the threats coming from the government regarding the protracted strike by nurses and other health workers in the country are unsettling.

We say this because threats and intimidation can never yield anything positive in any democratic dispensation like ours. The nurses and health workers downed tools over a month ago now, demanding an increase in their salaries and other allowances. According to the nurses, they are poorly remunerated and can barely sustain themselves despite the noble work that they do. The nurses say on average their housing allowance is pegged at K200,000, the uniform allowance is K35,000 and commuted night duty stands at K30,000, among other allowances. According to the nurses, those that are accommodated in one-room apartments at the University Teaching Hospital have about K150,000 deducted from their salaries. Negotiations have been going on between the government and the health workers' unions and a 15 per cent salary increment was signed last Monday. However, the health workers have rejected this increment on grounds that it excludes other allowances, which they think should be revised upwards.

It is undoubted that the health workers are poorly remunerated and the matter needs serious attention and consideration. These figures that the nurses are talking about, if they are anything to go by, need to be seriously looked at. This is not to say that we are happy with their strike and they should continue. The role of health workers in our country's health delivery system is very critical and the effects of their absence are being felt on a daily basis. Much as doctors, senior and student nurses are working, they cannot manage to attend to all the cases in our hospitals. This is why many people are being turned away, wards are being closed and patients - adults and children - are being placed in one place to reduce pressure on the few health workers that are currently working. In worst-case scenarios, expectant mothers are having to deliver in public or worse still, lose their children in childbirth simply because there is no one to attend to them.

In all this, it is the poor who are bearing the worst brunt as they cannot afford to go to private clinics and hospitals. Given the magnitude of the problem at hand, it is unacceptable that the government should resort to intimidation and threats to make the health workers return to work. How can one expect the nurses to understand that there is no money to increase their housing allowance from the current K200,000 when the government has indicated their readiness to pay mid-term gratuity of about K400 million per parliamentarian; when they are ready to obtain a loan from China to procure mobile hospitals at US $53 million (K301 billion)? How can one expect the nurses to listen to the government when government officials are posturing around, reminding them of how they should not expect to get more money than the ministers who are their bosses? How can one expect the health workers to listen when they are being asked to justify what risks they face as they demand risk allowances? As if that is not enough, chief government spokesperson Reverend Lt Gen Ronnie Shikapwasha has even gone further to accuse those sympathising with our health workers such as UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema of treason. What kind of arrogance and lack of sensitivity is this?

Rev Lt Gen Shikapwasha and his friends should know that the consequences of this strike will be disastrous if they continue to handle it in this manner. Ignoring the matter at hand, trivialising it and shifting blame on others will not do. This problem needs to be looked at and solution found as quickly as possible by the government and not any other person.

We have always said that it is an illusion to expect complete industrial harmony in capitalist society. But with honesty, humility and tact, the frequency and magnitude of such disputes can be minimised. Yes, resources will never be enough to satisfy all the workers' demands and the government will always use that to plead with the workers to return to work. But the workers can only be tolerant if the government shows some respect, care and regard for them through actions that are clearly tailored to respectifully resolve the disputes.

The health workers in this country have for a long time continued to complain about their poor conditions of service, but these calls have fallen on deaf ears. In extreme cases, they have resorted to strikes as we are witnessing now and the government has always pleaded that they return to work so that service delivery is not affected - understandably so. But it would be good if the government also showed concern to the health workers' conditions of service if they are truly interested in increasing efficiency in the public sector. Much as the government wants to ensure effective delivery of service to the people, workers can only maximise their efficiency with decent earnings.

The much talked about economic development and single digit inflation rates, the attainment of Millennium Development Goals and other development-related benchmarks will forever remain a pipedream as long as strikes continue to be perennial, the norm.

Zambia has been greatly affected by the brain drain in the health sector. Our country does not have sufficient health personnel - doctors, nurses, mid-wives, support-workers. Even the health workers that are currently on strike are not sufficient to deliver quality health care in our hospitals and clinics. Brain drain has left our poor country's struggling healthcare systems in an even more desperate situation.

We are aware that there is currently a retention scheme that is being implemented by the government to ensure that the country has qualified health personnel. But it will be difficult to retain our health workers with some of the figures that our nurses are talking about. It will be difficult to retain health workers if they are not treated with respect and listened to.

Rupiah Banda and his friends should seriously address the strike by the health workers because passing the buck or turning a deaf ear to the matter will not do.

The demands of the striking health workers can be addressed through negotiations. Negotiated solutions can be found even to disputes that have come to seem intractable and such solutions emerge when all the parties reach out to find the common ground. And you cannot negotiate with people you are threatening and demeaning in all sorts of ways.

If you are only prepared to issue threats, and not to compromise, you cannot negotiate. If you are not prepared to compromise, then you must not think about the process of negotiation at all. That is the nature of negotiations; that is the nature of compromising: you can negotiate and compromise on fundamental issues. Insignificant things, peripheral issues, don't need any compromise.

Labels: STRIKE

posted by MrK @ 2:26 PM