The University Teaching Hospital, the nation’s highest referral hospital, was yesterday paralysed after midwives and nurses downed tools over a wage dispute with the government.
A check in Ward CO3, the hospitals maternity wing, found that medics had refused to attend to pregnant women and other patients as they were not happy with the way the new salary increments had been effected.
“Tatuli fipuba, twalisambilila, sendeni ba cleaners mubabofye kubalwele (We are not fools, we are learned, get cleaners you use them to treat patients for us we are not ready to get back for work not until you address the increments).
Where on earth does a cleaner get more than a nurse? Which country is that? Yaba Sata na Kabimba fye,” one of the nurses said.
[pullquote]Tatuli fipuba, twalisambilila, sendeni ba cleaners mubabofye kubalwele[/pullquote] And the work stoppage by nurses and other health workers in Lusaka has spread to Southern, Western, Copperbelt and Eastern Provinces.
Another check at UTH children wing found nurses waiting to be addressed by their union representatives and other senior managers, while others walked away saying that they did not have time to listen to lies by those that were paid to convince them to get back for work.
Nurses and other health workers among other things are demanding decent salary increment saying that they felt insulted by the PF government to equate them to cleaners and others who were non-professionals.
After the PF government increased salaries cleaners are getting K2.900, while nurses are between the range of K2.900 and K3.100.
According to sources at the hospital, nurses were infuriated after realising that their salaries were equated to cleaners, security guards and other classified daily employees at the institution who were now getting K2.900 on average.
Nurses and midwives who have described the recent salary increment shameful and lack of respect by the Patriotic Front (PF) government to professionals said that they would not get back to work until government review the increment.
The nurses also said that they felt betrayed by their union leaders who went for a raw deal which has created confusion and discontent in the manner the health sector would operate.
A group of nurses went round all the wards removing all nurses who were working at UTH both at the main hospital and the children wing.
About midday yesterday, health workers mainly clinical officers and nurses in Monze, Mazabuka, Choma and Livingstone were waiting for instructions to stop work until the matter is resolved.
In Chipata nurses, Mongu and Kitwe nurses had actively joined the strike demanding for a serious increment saying that the PF government will not get away with what they described cheap lies.
But Civil Servants and Allied Worker Union of Zambia (CSAWUZ) public relations Alphas Munakaila said that nurses and other aggrieved workers should understand the negotiation process.
Munakaila said that those striking should also understand that workers such as cleaners, guards and others who were getting little salaries have been put in lime light for them to also have an equal share of the national cake.
“The union is aware about the strike or work stoppage by some nurses, our appeal is to our members to be patient. They need to understand the negotiation process and above all we were informing them about the discussions that we were having with government.
Nurses should also understand what is at stake, these people (CDEs) were least remunerated in terms of salaries and government was trying to bridge up the gap between the lowly paid and others. We know that they are not happy-we shall talk to them to understand the whole issue,” said Munakaila
Meanwhile, Deputy Speaker Mkhondo Lungu has ordered Minister of Health Joseph Katema to issue a comprehensive statement next week on the status of the health sector in the country with respect to reports of strikes by nurses and midwives.This was after Chipata Central member of parliament Reuben Mtolo Phiri stood on a point of order to find out whether the government was in order to keep quiet on the matter when nurses had downed tools.
In his ruling, Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly Mkhondo Lungu ordered that the ministry responsible issues a statement on the matter next week, amid mummers from the opposition who wanted the matter to be addressed urgently.
[Source:Zambia Daily Nation]
I feel them.How can a cleaner without any formal tertiary qualifications earn the same amount as nurses ? The government here messed up.Otherwise for the 4 % increment the nurses must heap the blame on their union representatives because they are the ones who negotiated for the package with government on their behalf.
Looks to me like the strike is not necessarily because the nurses think the money they are getting is little.It is because they are not comfortable that cleaners and other general workers are now also getting good salaries.The strike has been motivated by envy and nothing else.
Whichever Nurse feel aggrieved should resigne forthwith.
Your demands do not equate to an increase in productivity, but rather mere gread.
I agree with you. In fact most of the so called nurses are lazy and do not look after patients as they claim. they are always busy selling eggs, sweets etc during working hours. most of the work of looking after patients is done by relatives with some help from cleaners. So to hell imwe ma nurses, atase, what nursing do you do? Most of you do work in private hospitals and come to public hospitals tired and insult patients and those nursing them. You deserve to get lower than cleaners.
@ Saulosi dear,
it happens in Europe, it only depends on how much, how many hours and the type of contract one has, maybe PF was considering that? But i know in Zambia what matters most are qualifications, in developed world as well, but certain elements like the ones i have stated above can allow a labourer to make more than a nurse or teacher. i just hope people wont die prematurely otherwise those in service will be likened to Killer doctors or nurses!
Some of these Unions are full of PF cadres and are paid double i.e. by the PF party and Government not reject certian terms and conditions. Life must by like this: the longer the time you spend in school the better your pay. This longer time must not be mistaken for failing hence staying long but, the more educated the person the more money they must get. But if those who ran away from school for whatever reasons are paid the same with those who endured with perseverence, then going to school becomes less useful. If unions wanted to reduce the gap in salaries, that was a mistake instead pay cleaners enough for food basket and professional even more than that. Foolish unions.
The more money one spends for education the more they must get or be paid as a result.
Is this what the so called-Union Represetaives and PF government call “HARMONIZATION OF SALARIES”? If thats a case, Ministers should also be getting some salaries with the rest of the civil servants. And one person has gone missing in Zambia. We don’t know if this person has been abducted by Al-Shaabab or by the Boko Haram.
Sata isn’t educated ,do you expect him to value educated workers? we told u don’t put a grade 3 in state house.
@ gumu gumu, as a matter of interest, who do you want to be at state house?
Right on gumu gumu.
As for Chiluba, you are as uneducated as your president, that is the most *****ic ignorant thing I have ever heard. Just plain stupid.
This Munakaila chap should also be sacked from his post. How can he support the harmonization of my salary with that of a CDE?
If he is scared of advocating for my salary increment, then let him advocate for govt to employ more nurses so that I am spared from overwork. Currently Nurses are overburdened while CDEs are not. so, why harmonize???????????????????????????
In fact, what was the criteria govt was using to harmonize my salary with the CDE? If all that govt needed was harmonization, the they should have closed the gap between the Nurse and the Doctor as well.
Ridgeway school of medicine is the solution if at all you have the minimum qualifications to get there. why not fight your own battle without including the doctor in the equation?
Outsource the cleaning department so that professionals can concentrate on core medical duties and avoid voyeurism. Look at how clean shopping malls who have followed this path are.
kekekekek.gongádi..kekekek..mwaona manje..we told you!!
Greedy nurses honestly your fellow workmates salaries have been increased instead it bothers you.who told you that cleaners aren’t important and deserve a good salary? you are even saying “twalilisambilila sendeni ba cleaner mubabonfye kubalwele” that’s an insult.some of you got educated through your fathers who were cleaners and today you start boasting.Ati twalisambilila is this the kind of education one to boast about,after all some of you cheated in your entire academic period to get those tuma papers.
To the government I salute you, what you have done is truly a commendable job. don’t listen to these hypocrites who are always happy when their friends are in problems.
Man or lady, please hold your fire. There is no where in the world where a cleaner gets same salary as a professional. Increasing payments for them is well come but the professionals must get higher than them? This has happened to my brother , his cleaner got more than him….imagine , what is this nonsense? You can see that there is a problem in the manner they effected the increments. They have to revisit it , otherwise it will cause a lot of confusion in GRZ.
PF and the Unionists, please look into this mess you have created. It is not only nurses but the whole civil service. How can a cleaner get equal pay with a professional? No No this is madness. I cant support you on this one.
Peace and Prosperity to Mother Zambia.
In this day and age the government still employs cleaners? Given our free market system this should be outsourced. That way you create entrepreneurship and the health ministry focuses on its core business.
Please let the government employ its people and give them a living wage. This outsourcing you are talking about will leave many Zambians on the streets with a chain reaction leading into many vices including crime. Nurses and similarly other professionals should fight their own battles without necessarily comparing themselves to the maids or the other categories of workers. They should state their worth and argue on that basis with the government and i am sure the government will listen. Na ma cleaners nabena bantu made in the image of God needing to survive in this cruel world sure. I rest my case.
In other words give contracts to Zambian owned companies to clean hospitals. Those companies will most likely employ the experienced cleaners currently employed by the Ministry of Health directly.
That sounds fine. That is how small businesses are promoted in developed countries.
You will know Zambia has a REAL Leader when the President opts to be treated in our local Hospitals, instead of playing hop- scotch, & dashing to medical facilities abroad, whenever they suffer a niggle or ache.
Surely all leaders in developed democratic nations, when ill use local hospitals, because they have faith in local facilities, that are funded properly.
Our leaders when in opposition promise to fix our non-functioning dilapidated hospitals, but once in power suffer from selective amnesia & one wonders why they DONCHI use our local clinics.
This is similar to a company that manufactures cars, but none of the company top brass travel in their cars. They would certainly NOT convince me to buy their product-(Cars), as they themselves have NO confidence in their own Product!
When medical staff go on a work stoppage it is the poor citizens that suffer the most, Sata goes to India or the UK for medical checkup and treatment and when he returns he tell Zambians his government loves them.
Nurses are highly qualified and the GRZ has a responsibility to look after them well.
PF have a listening ear because you will go out of power faster than you came in.Make corrections for the mess you have done.Cleaners boosts even saying Money is Ours and Eduction & going to school its yours.Which school offer training in CDEs???? 2016 we put educated President like Chipimo.BALEISA BALEISA BA NURSE NA COUNTRY WIDE STRIKE
Nurses today are doing little work especially at U.T.H most of the patients are cared or cleaned by their parents who are on bedsides, they should not complain of being paid little money .
PF isn’t to blame here nurses should query their unions who have portrayed poor skills at negotiating with boma look at it quickly.
1. It’s not a matter of education but output and a dedicated service to better the lives of humans. To me, it is a sign of mal-education to leave people for dead simply because you ve the same salary as lower class worker and not that you are under paid.
2. The health sector in Zambia is highly subsidized including the training of staff. Those training to be nurses pay a subsidized fee and almost have assure employment by govt. therefore, they are expected to show much appreciation to the tax payers who subsidized their education and continue to finance their salaries. There are better ways of addressing grievances than rushing to a strike that may result in the death of tax payers who subsidies them.
3. No country has ever developed on papers but hard work. Work and not papers count!
Zambia sugar has been doing the same thing for many years and u find that grade seven drop outs are getting same or more to people who have spent time on desks. The most pipo that zambia sugar has oppressed are holders of techenical and craft certificates.Infact Zambia sugar among companies doing well has workers that get k800.Pipo like James Mukukwa (factory manager)enjoys seeing pipo suffering.Am a technician in electrical and my basic is just k3750 equal to many grade 7 and 9 drop out and the moment i go on annuel leave it reduces to k2800.
Talk to Mr. Muyempa or Kabanji your Area Managers
Developed countries consider professionalism.
In New Zealand Registered Nurses get from $30 per hour while cleaners get from $15 per hour.
Improving conditions of service should not amount to a zero-sum game where one party gains at the expense of another. All the workers are important and should receive a living wage but equity issues are important. Education and training is an investment which should be recouped.
It is also true that nursing services are a direct input in patient life/saving care in the health service continuum and a cleaner is not. Cleaners are needed to keep the hospitals clean to minimise the mushrooming of bugs. Let us handle these issues professionally. Where are the experts and did they play a role? Surely Unions and govt officials need backstopping by…
@ say it as it is
walya iwe. you make valid points. additionally, as you rightly point out, the issue of nurses/salaries/etc has to be viewed from the perspective of provision of quality health care by all. In no way shape or form, will qualified and bright candidates go into nursing, if they cannot be compensated appropriately. As it is, the brain drain for/among nurses in zambia is stunning and obviously, this does not appear to bother the powers that be.
the general public’s perception of nurses also ought to change. I do not care how bright/good the physician taking care of a patient may be if they have an incompetent nurse/s. except you have good and well compensated nurses, we as people will continue to needless die.
and of course nurses must be held accountable regarding…
Surely Unions and govt officials need backstopping by experts.
I have always wondered why we rush into making decisions before conducting forensic studies or serious objective analysis of the issue. Equality is good but it only works well in issues of access to public goods like laws, civil and defence protection, right to life, political expression such as rights to opinions and voting BUT certainly not remuneration. Would it be fair to pay a doctor the same salary as a nurse, all because they all work on patients? Certainly not. It takes at least 7 years of university education to become a doctor and even more years to become a surgeon. A sweeper only requires one or two weeks of training on the job to be able to do a good cleaning job. Surprised that Zambian experts missed this.
It is time for the cleaners…after all you put one in state house against good advice!
“Munakaila said that those striking should also understand that workers such as cleaners, guards and others who were getting little salaries have been put in lime light for them to also have an equal share of the national cake”.
What a union leader! Why not fight for a salary increment for everyone unlike equating nurses to cleaners. Does PF value education?