News / National
'Nurses' strike illegal'
29 Apr 2015 at 06:11hrs | Views
The Health Services Board has declared a strike by nurses at Government hospitals over night allowances illegal and said the workers should carry out their duties as normal while negotiations continue.
The strike by nurses at various health institutions began on Monday as a full blown industrial action, but is now confined to night duty only to press for night allowances.
HSB communications executive Mr Nyasha Maravanyika said in an interview yesterday that they were surprised by the strike as they were in the midst of negotiations over the allowances.
"This strike came as a surprise to us because as far as we are concerned we are in negotiations with the nurses' leadership over their allowances," said Mr Maravanyika.
He said the negotiations started around early March, but nurses claimed that the process was taking too long.
Zimbabwe Nurses Association president Mrs Regina Smith confirmed that nurses were not working.
"Nurses are not on strike, they are going to work, but they are just not working at night," she said.
Mrs Smith said they were in negotiations with the HSB over the allowances and hoped the situation would be resolved soon.
As of yesterday, the nurses had reverted to day working shifts, but stopped reporting for night duty.
One of the nurses interviewed on condition of anonymity at Harare Central Hospital confirmed that they were not going to work at night.
"We want reasonable night duty allowances from the $1,5 million which was allocated for health workers,'' she said.
She said some nurses were getting as low as $3 per month as allowances for night duty and yet they were doing all the "dirty work" at hospitals.
According to the nurses, their grading system has not been standardised since 2010, while on-call and night-duty allowances have not been paid since January.
At Chinhoyi Provincial Hospital, the situation has been bad particularly during the night when qualified nurses are not reporting for duty, leaving only student nurses and sisters-in-charge to attend to serious cases.
Several patients were discharged on Monday when the nurses went on strike.
Nurses interviewed said normalcy would only return once their concerns had been addressed.
"We work during odd hours and under stressing conditions which require that we get our on-call and night duty allowances," said a nurse who preferred anonymity. "We have gone on strike since Monday and we are not going back to work until that anomaly has been addressed."
The hospital's medical superintendant Dr Collett Mawire confirmed the strike and said contingency measures had been put in place to alleviate the situation.
"The situation is under control as sisters-in-charge and student nurses are covering for the nurses who are not reporting for duty," said Dr Mawire. "We have discharged and compressed our wards for easy of management."
As of last night, most Government hospitals were being manned by a skeleton staff at night comprising matrons and senior nurses.
The strike by nurses at various health institutions began on Monday as a full blown industrial action, but is now confined to night duty only to press for night allowances.
HSB communications executive Mr Nyasha Maravanyika said in an interview yesterday that they were surprised by the strike as they were in the midst of negotiations over the allowances.
"This strike came as a surprise to us because as far as we are concerned we are in negotiations with the nurses' leadership over their allowances," said Mr Maravanyika.
He said the negotiations started around early March, but nurses claimed that the process was taking too long.
Zimbabwe Nurses Association president Mrs Regina Smith confirmed that nurses were not working.
"Nurses are not on strike, they are going to work, but they are just not working at night," she said.
Mrs Smith said they were in negotiations with the HSB over the allowances and hoped the situation would be resolved soon.
As of yesterday, the nurses had reverted to day working shifts, but stopped reporting for night duty.
One of the nurses interviewed on condition of anonymity at Harare Central Hospital confirmed that they were not going to work at night.
She said some nurses were getting as low as $3 per month as allowances for night duty and yet they were doing all the "dirty work" at hospitals.
According to the nurses, their grading system has not been standardised since 2010, while on-call and night-duty allowances have not been paid since January.
At Chinhoyi Provincial Hospital, the situation has been bad particularly during the night when qualified nurses are not reporting for duty, leaving only student nurses and sisters-in-charge to attend to serious cases.
Several patients were discharged on Monday when the nurses went on strike.
Nurses interviewed said normalcy would only return once their concerns had been addressed.
"We work during odd hours and under stressing conditions which require that we get our on-call and night duty allowances," said a nurse who preferred anonymity. "We have gone on strike since Monday and we are not going back to work until that anomaly has been addressed."
The hospital's medical superintendant Dr Collett Mawire confirmed the strike and said contingency measures had been put in place to alleviate the situation.
"The situation is under control as sisters-in-charge and student nurses are covering for the nurses who are not reporting for duty," said Dr Mawire. "We have discharged and compressed our wards for easy of management."
As of last night, most Government hospitals were being manned by a skeleton staff at night comprising matrons and senior nurses.
Source - herald
