Government has given striking nurses up to 17:00hrs today to report for work or be charged for absenteeism.
Health Minister Dr.Joseph Kasonde has told journalists during a media briefing in Lusaka that government considers all nurses on strike as being absent from duty and that the process of charging them for absenteeism will be commenced.
Dr. Kasonde added that he together with Labour counterpart Fackson Shamenda this morning met the striking nurses at University Teaching Hospital and appealed to them to report for work because their action is illegal.
He stated that all nurses on strike will be required to give reasons for their absenteeism on an individual basis and exculpate themselves as to why disciplinary action should not be taken against them should they fail to meet the deadline of 17:00 hours.
The Health Minister explained that in the absence of justifiable reasons for this, the normal disciplinary process will be followed.
Dr. Kasonde has since applauded and appreciated the great work and dedication from health professionals not on strike who continue to render care to patients.
The strike action by the nurses at UTH has entered day seven, and has since spread to Levy Mwanawasa, Livingston and Kasama General Hospitals.
Meanwhile, the Planned Parenthood Association of Zambia has come on board to offer free medical services at its clinics following the prolonged nurses strike in public health facilities.
PPAZ Executive Director Edford Mutuma announced in Lusaka that the association will from today offer free services at all its three clinics in Lusaka, Livingstone and Kitwe to help alleviate the sufferings of the patients.
“PPAZ would like to help our people in a small way by opening our clinics in Lusaka along Church road, our Livingstone clinic at 51 Kanyanta Avenue and our Kitwe clinic on Independence Avenue to offer intensive and comprehensive reproductive health services for free during these hard moments,” Mr Mutuma said.
He said the services to be offered will include laboratory services, malaria test, STI screening and Testing, HIV counseling and testing, Cervical Cancer screening, long and short acting family planning and all kinds of blood test.
“It is our hope that this will ease pressure on our people and we will contribute to savings lives of our people.”
Mr Mutuma however called for a quick fix by government and the striking union to come up with a solution.
“We are also appealing to government to start thinking of introducing long term solutions to the deficit of human resources in the health sector by training more medical personnel. Government should seriously engage the private sector to train more health workers.”
He said government should also consider investing in the defence force to come up with a strong health department which can go across the country to offer health services.
Don’t worry, THEY DON’T HAVE SPACE TO JAIL YOU ALL!!!
Report in the morning, then by evening eat alot of beans – have a bit of diarrhoea & REPORT SICK!! They can’t then intimidate you individually – get sick notes for Dias!!! Doctors will obviously support you!!
#1 do you understand English? I haven’t seen any mention of a jail in this article. Where have you read it? While there is need to increase wages/salaries of civil servants reasonableness must be observed especially where the employer is open to negotiations. What makes one think that teachers and police office men/women won’t go on strike demanding pay increase, too?
I do my dear boy!!
Probably you missed the word illegal in the article – something illegal is open to being sanctioned with a variety of things such as warnings, fines , …. to being jailed!!
I thus was emphasising the extremity of the sanctions available!
I hope my dear boy that you have learnt a thing or two of this language!!
JUST FIRE THE IDIIOTS THEY ARE NOT DEDICATED.
Fire them? Where are they going to get other nurses? U are foolish indeed
@tbj.
Tripoli appears to be the one of those enjoying medical care outside Zambia at the cost of Zambian tax-payers.
Firing the striking nurses will be a better approach. Re employ those who exculpate themselves satsfactorily while weeding out those bad influences. Governments the world over do that to clean up a system.
Peter, which GOVTs have done that???? name JUST ONE ?????
I will not be surprised to hear it was the “Govt that had a Hole!”
That is , the govt from CHATULIKA VILLAGE!!!!!!
Nurses are A.W.O.L ? Those are kid gloves you are putting on Bwana Minister. They have told you they are on strike. Either give them what they want to stop the strike or read to them the riot book on the consequences of undertaking and indulging in a strike action you have not approved. Don’t beat about the bush!
These are not shoprite untrained workers. Please nurses Dont be intimidated by this inferio govt. Next time you Zambians must vote for a president who atleast reached gledi seveni.
but Ukwa ni super graduate. elo uja muntu nikapokola futi. Ukwa chabe amanidabwisa ine.
lekeni ukusabaila mwe tubwa twakwa HH! Why didnt your aromatic alderhyde and formalderhyde fake educated president win elections. You a just as envious and bitter as he is.
That’s not a solution Dr. Kasonde. We know that you can’t just fire them like that. These guys never demanded much in the first place but your careless talk as PF has caused all this.
You should have at least given them 21% over three years. right now they know that there is a wage freeze for three years and if they accept 4% , that’s all they will get in three years. What about inflation?
As for the employment freeze, you should have employed at least 1/2 of the civil servants you employed and split the other half between the remaining years. this could have helped your image.
I am not against GRZ recruitment or salary increment but politicians have to be very tactical.
Thus rubbish you can not be intimidating people when you made the promises without anyone pointing at gun at your head. Just honour your promises and they will go back to work
Great job ppaz.thats the spirit.
Government is not being sincere. Salary increments were effected in September 2013. Come month-end, they received, they received only 4%. Come October month-end and November month-end same thing. For some reason, Dr Kasonde believes the nurses are wrong and he and Fackson are right. Now you decide to threaten them because you cannot live up to your promises. Your Finance Minister then decides to increase the amount of debt the country can have at any given time so you can go back, borrow, and meet the wage bill. That’s why you are arrogantly telling the nurses to shut up. What kind of Government is this?
As much as I do not support the strike by Nurses, the way of bulldozing up by government does not solve problems.
What if they go back and do not perform to the expectation . You can take a horse to the river but you cannot force it to drink water.
Those are the fruits of voting for PF. So do not cry.
ask them how much they use to get under MMD.I challenge them to show figures so that people can see themeslves the Huge difference.
In as much as i feel pity for our patients lets look at the plight of our dear nurses for the hard work they are putting in to cater for the patients, the fact is their union leaders and GOVT agreed and signed to award the hard working nurses 21% apart from other allowances but alas come end of the month there was only 4% for two months in a row and was attributed to an anomally and instead of correcting it they have resorted to threaten the same nurses they promised, WHERE IS THE LOGIC FROM OUR LEADERS FELLOW BLOGERS?
Why force nurses to go back to work while you fail to reduce your salaries. Nurses should never vote for PF be it bye- election or general election. You should also check which policemen have been deployed so that when they are sick you dont treat them right
who cares! last time they voted for upnd and mmd yet pf won. Nurses are just cheap namakwenkwes( petty filth harlots)
Intimidation at its best ,why 17hrs?May i find out is there any shift which starts at 17hrs in the ministry of health? i know of 18,20,22,etc
Failure by the head, who thinks Zambia is indeed one tribe dominated. Check who is the new deputy of the said ministry. Nepotism is indeed deadly, worse than any weapon of mass destruction.
If you are not at work by now, you fired!!!!!!
You can’t bite the hand which is feeding you. Nurses should have feelings. GRZ has promised to comply but giving conditions for them to return to work is something else.
have they reported..I can’t see any here..kekekekekekee
personally i dont see any problem here, the nurses were promised 21%increment effective september 2013, come end of september 4%, end of october4% and now end of november still 4% so how long are the nurses going to wait for this so called anomally to rectified mwebantu? and if you threaten them are you solving the problem , just adress them and at least cheat them again!!
Lelo chili pa mzako, mailo chili pali iwe! KCM are you watching!!!
They wont fire them!
Why can’t they just accept what they have before it turns to the past.These nurses need to appriciate what they have or they better change their career.#PERIOD!
It is easy to change career man!!!
Iwe ku USA uko, wali kwata ka health insurance???
Uka fwila pambali ya musebo kwati ni ka “Road Kill” nga tau nchenjele!!
Talukila uko! pumbafu!
Leave our nurses alone!!
Whoever is speaking against the nurses has a dog mind! Iwe ka kasonde don’t be stupid! You think nurses are your pets who you can cheat today and later intimidate tomorrow!! Very dull!!! All of you saying evil against educated nurses who are demanding for what is rightfully theirs are bastards! Naimwe vima nasi vapa kabwe general, mazabuka, chipata, navima hospital va sala don’t be stupid!!! After all ndrama zikabwela ndimwe muzankala na first mumilaini kubank! *****s, join your friends and fight for a common goal!