Maravi

Strikes continue

Strikes continue
Written by Staff Reporters
Thursday, June 11, 2009 12:43:51 PM

MINISTRY of Health yesterday dismissed the Times of Zambia story suggesting that the government had clinched a deal with health workers in the country on the pay rise. And the four medical wards at Ndola Central Hospital have been closed and both female and male patients have been moved to the Casualty ward where only emergency cases are being attended to.

But works and supply minister Mike Mulongoti has asked striking workers to be realistic in their demands, saying the percentage increment they would receive in wages will also apply to senior government officials.

According to a statement, Ministry of Health spokesperson Dr Reuben Mbewe refuted the lead story published in the Times of Zambia on Wednesday which quoted the ministry's permanent secretary Dr Velepi Mtonga as having said that the government had finally reached an agreement with health workers' unions on the pay rise for members.

Dr Mbewe stated that the article was incorrect and misleading.

He stated that it was true that Dr Mtonga appeared before the Parliamentary Committee on Government Assurances on Tuesday and that during the sessions of this committee, she limited her responses to the required framework.

Dr Mbewe stated that Dr Mtonga was misquoted in the fourth paragraph of the article which read: "we are still on the table negotiating for nurses but as for the salaries, we have reached 100 per cent agreement, we remain with housing allowances."

He stated that Dr Mtonga did not comment on the negotiations at all.

"Dr Mtonga is aware that she is not the spokesperson of the government negotiating team and that she is not supposed to say anything relating to the negotiations unless through the recognised channel. Note that the negotiations are still going on and conclusions have not been reached as your story seeks to communicate," he stated. "For any comment on the negotiations, it is advised that your office contacts Cabinet Office now and in the future. You are cordially advised to urgently correct this misrepresentation and duly inform the public properly so that Dr Mtonga is not held responsible for the error. Lastly, we encourage you to continue to exhibit the high standards of professionalism that your paper has been known for many years."

Dr Mtonga was quoted in the Times of Zambia on Wednesday as having said that the government and the union negotiating teams had reached consensus on the salary increase for the nurses but was yet to agree on housing allowances.

According to the story, Dr Mtonga also urged the health workers to resume work immediately.

And Civil Servants and Allied Workers Union of Zambia (CSAWUZ) Ndola District chairperson Joy Beene confirmed the closure of the wards and described the situation as bad.

Beene maintained that health workers would not give up on their demands and that if the government wanted it could declare a dispute.

The government has proposed 15 per cent salary increment so far to health workers but the striking nurses have rejected it.

CSAWUZ Arthur Davison Children's Hospital branch chairperson Agness Ndilla said there were a lot of Brought In Dead (BID) cases at the hospitals on account of operations at the clinics being paralysed.

She said the number of people who were being brought in dead was more compared with the time when the operations in hospitals and clinics were normal.

CSAWUZ Ndola District Health Management Team chairperson Alice Chansa said the sisters-in-charge in clinics had also been stretched beyond their limits and that most of them were only attending to patients for a few hours before retiring to rest.

In Lusaka, a check at Chainama Clinic found nurses not attending to patients.

Nurses at the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) were also found sitting near the car park at the casualty section.

One of the nurses talked to said the health workers would not return to work until the government responds to their demands to increase the various allowances.

The nurse, who sought anonymity, complained that they carried out a lot of work compared to the amount of amount they get.

On Tuesday night around midnight, a woman who was taken to UTH by her relatives delivered outside the premises.

The woman, who was in advanced labour, was removed from the vehicle wrapped in a blanket but the baby was dangling.

The woman, whose pictures are too gruesome to publish, only managed to move up to the pavement where she delivered and the baby died.

The relatives to the woman said before they went to UTH, they tried to seek assistance from other clinics but they could not as there were no health personnel to attend to them.

Zambia National Union of Health and Allied Workers (ZNUHAW) president Ozias Banda said they sat for a meeting on Tuesday and were still meeting yesterday as there were a few issues that had to be discussed.

And health workers at Siavonga District Hospital have gone on strike, paralysing operations at the health institution.

CSAWUZ District chairperson Martin Mwenya confirmed the strike action by health workers yesterday.

Mwenya disclosed that the decision by Siavonga health workers to go on strike was arrived at following a meeting on Tuesday.

Mwenya charged that the workers unanimously resolved to go on strike because the government had taken too long to address their plight.

"The workers met yesterday [Tuesday] and voted that they were joining their fellow workers who have already gone on strike because government was not promising them anything with regards the improvement of their conditions of service," he said.

However, Mwenya said the meeting resolved to draw up a timetable at the hospital to allow a few staff members to attend to serious cases that were reported to departments such as maternity.

But a check by ZANIS found only two nurses attending to all cases in the district hospital.

Children that were admitted in the children's ward at the institution had been forced out of their ward and mixed with elderly patients in the female ward as there were limited personnel to attend to them.

Judy Mumbwali, a mother who was found nursing her child, disclosed that they were ordered on Tuesday afternoon to move out of the children's ward to the female ward because they would have no one to attend to them if they remained in that particular ward.

Efforts by ZANIS to get a comment from acting district director of health Thierry Beya failed as he arrogantly refused to speak to the reporter.

But district commissioner Emily Striedl condemned the move by health workers to down their tools, saying there was a better way of resolving the problem without workers resorting to strike action.

And Treatment Advocacy and Literacy Campaign (TALC) board chairperson Clementine Mumba expressed concern on the withdrawal of labour by health workers in most parts of the country, which had created a negative effect, especially on the health of people living with HIV.

Mumba said people living with HIV, whether on treatment or not, were regularly observed at these public health institutions and also collected their antiretroviral medicines as well as medicines to treat opportunistic infections.

She said the go-slow by health workers would mean that they would not have access to this health care that they desperately needed to lead productive normal lives.

"While workers are entitled to withdraw their labour, doing so at this critical time of the global recession will not help matters. TALC is worried that every work stoppage in the health sector is a contribution to Zambia's failure of achieving the MDGs on health for 2015," she said.

Mumba said although members of parliament were scheduled to get their mid-term gratuity, the government should have looked at priorities like paying health workers and teachers who promoted the well-being of every nation.

She said from the time health workers decided to lay down their tools, there had been media reports of patients at public health institutions being neglected and even bodies of the dead not being attended to, four days after their demise.

Mumba said the dead had been left on hospital beds, creating more traumas to other patients lying in agony in the same wards.

She appealed to all parties concerned to quickly resolve the issue for the benefit of poor Zambians, the majority of whom cannot access health care from private facilities or abroad.

Mumba said failure to remedy the situation would create negative spiral effects not only on the lives of persons living with HIV but the health sector as a whole.

In Livingstone in Southern Province, public service workers momentarily forced the magistrates' courts to adjourn sessions when they marched to the provincial minister's office, which is near the court buildings over their demands for improved conditions of service.

The workers, mainly teachers and nurses, were clad in black outfits and staged a mock mourning session at the minister's office.

They carried placards, which read: "we want our Mwanawasa back through Magande", "government should employ monkeys if it wants to pay peanuts", "we will only listen to RB or someone above."

The workers gathered at Victoria Hall where they sang solemn songs and later moved to the provincial minister's office where the union leaders were locked up in a meeting with the provincial permanent secretary Daruis Hakayobe.

Livingstone District Secondary School Teachers Union of Zambia (SESTUZ) chairman Robert Liyanda said the police had on Tuesday issued the workers a permit to hold a protest dubbed Black Wednesday but later withdrew the permit.

"The police had given us a permit but later withdraw it citing reasons that we did not give them a one week notice. We are however locked up in a meeting with the permanent secretary Daruis Hakayobe who is taking too much of our time because we need to address our members so that we can disperse," he said.

After being locked up in the meeting with Hakayobe for almost an hour, it was resolved that the teachers disperse and meet again on Monday for an approved demonstration after which the one week notice would have matured.

Liyanda said Hakayobe agreed to meet the union representatives again on Saturday to resolve the matters.

And Non Governmental Organisations Coordinating Council (NGOCC) board chairperson Marian Munyinda said the government's lack of priorities had fuelled strikes in the country.

Munyinda expressed concern at the on-going strike by public service workers countrywide.

She said NGOCC was particularly worried about the subsequent impact on women, children and all Zambians.

"Newspaper pictures of children dying because of no one to attend to them, pregnant women languishing at health centres with no one to care, are not only shocking but also paint a very negative image of the government which not so long ago hurriedly awarded itself salary increment barely two months in office," she said.

Munyinda said she was saddened that the government continued to pay lip service to the plight of public service workers in the country.

"Why is it that every year public service workers have to resort to strike action in order for government to listen? This kind of firefighting attitude is intolerable especially when we are dealing with matters of life and death," she said "With our already inadequate health facilities in the country, the ongoing strike by health workers surely spell doom on efforts to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on health."

Munyinda said the damage that the strike had caused would never be reversed.

She said many lives that could have been saved were being lost and even now many women were giving birth in their homes thus risking both their lives and those of their babies.

"As NGOCC we find this unacceptable. We believe that government's lack of proper priorities is fuelling strikes in the country. For instance, the multi-million dollar purchases of 100 hearses may be interpreted, wrongly or rightly, that government is more interested in serving those who are dead than the health workers," she said "Similarly, the proposed K301 billion mobile hospitals also create an impression that government has enough money to meet the demands of the unions. Then we have the K66 billion set aside in this year's budget for mid term gratuity to members of parliament. How do you justify paying about K420 million to each of the over 150 members of parliament when teachers and nurses feel underpaid in everyway thereby turning them into economic refugees in other countries? This has resulted in critical shortage of health workers in the country already. The government needs to listen to the plight and cries of the people."

She said NGOCC symphasised with the plight of the striking workers and urged the unions to approach the negotiations with a spirit of give and take.

Munyinda said it would not help matters for the union leaders to be rigid.

"The health workers have a moral responsibility to save the lives of the 12 million Zambians. As NGOCC we urgently urge the unions and government to quickly find a common ground and end this strike without further delay. We cannot wait to see an end to this carnage that has been caused by the countrywide strike by health workers," Munyinda said.

But Mulongoti said civil servants' strikes were politically influenced.

Commenting on the strikes that had rocked several government ministries, Mulongoti said the striking workers would be the ones to complain if constitutional office holders and senior government officials received an upward adjustment to their allowances and salaries.

"It goes without saying that if you get 15 per cent, you can't complain when senior government officials receive 15 per cent, because what is the basis for your complaint?" Mulongoti asked. "If they get 10 per cent, constitutional office holders get 10 per cent. Also to insinuate that the person who is entitled to gratuity should not receive, does not hold because a gratuity is an entitlement. They [civil servants] think they must get more money than the people supervising them."

He charged that civil servants were being influenced by politicians to strike so that they could destabilise government functions.

Mulongoti said civil servants should realise that a significant portion of the budget was sponsored by the donors and salary increments would not be justified because of the current global economic crisis.

"First of all, we would want to talk to them that they are punishing innocent people. They are being incited politically, which is unfortunate. There is an economic downturn, I don't think there is appreciation that what is happening elsewhere affects us," said Mulongoti. "Others are retrenching while others [civil servants] want salary increments. Do you think donors will be happy that there is a downturn and their people are losing jobs while here people are protesting?"

Mulongoti said those who were striking should realise that there were more capable and qualified people who were entitled to employment but were roaming the streets.

Civil servants from four ministries in Lusaka on Tuesday resolved to go on strike in protest against the 15 per cent salary increment awarded to them this year.

The ministries affected are lands, energy, mines and agriculture, all housed at Mulungushi House.

Labels: MINISTRY OF HEALTH, STRIKE

posted by MrK @ 11:48 AM