The dismissal of more than 150 nurses has affected the health delivery at the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) as a big number of qualified nurses were not working.
The nurses who had participated in a strike action for more than a week over their wage disparities and salary anomalies were on Tuesday dismissed by the Government after warnings to end illegal strike.
UTH public relations manager, Mwenya Mulenga said the dismissal was a result of the nurses failing to exculpate themselves despite Government directing them to do so.
Mr Mulenga said the referral hospital continued to work although the experienced nurses were not available saying the institution had covered all areas.
“As a hospital we have continued to work although with few interruptions, we are awaiting the Public Service Management Division to employ and give us the numbers we need in our establishment to make our operations continue.
“We have put in measures to cover critical areas, this has temporal setback and we hoped that after the strike we could get back to our normal operations. We have to get back to our plan be so that operations are not on a stand still, so the defence personnel, student nurses, doctors among others will continue with manning operations,” he said.
Patients were dying during their strike anyway…
Everywhere in the world health workers get more money than other workers because they risk their live working in a deadly infectious environment . I also thank MMD and RB for the many projects you started like kariba north bank power someone was boasting of having created we know his programs just ends at launching point. He has history of firing drs and ka FTJ . Please nurses and patients come 2016 give him a red card
You see these are the consequences of making knee jerk ejaculative decision withought proper reasoning what u get now is a poor finishing (PF) result.
I would rather have a few disciplined nurses than many undisciplined ones.In every organization there are always rules and laws that must be adhered to.You can’t just go on an illegal strike as an essential worker without the blessing of the union in any organized country and get away with it.This should serve as a warning to others to exercise restraint and follow normal channels next time.
Neither am I happy at the firing of nurses nor them nurses dancing in front of the camera’s whilst the patients and innocent Zambians die on the que but again we don`t have to criticise for the sake of it. Nurses abrogated the law with impunity by holding government to ransom and risking the lives of innocent Zambians. By law they are not supposed to go on strike without the blessing of their union.When we say “rule of law” this is it.
The problem is with Sata. This is the guy who used to side with striking workers when he was in opposition. You used to promise these people “bread and butter” when you were in opposition. What has changed now? Where is the Sata of PF as an opposition party? All of the sudden you have forgotten them, just because all is well with you. “It is very easy for a camel to go through the eye of a niddle than for Sata to tell the truth”.
Why can’t these nurses form a choir or a dance troupe if they are so fond of singing and dancing?
why make them fake promises? Are they kids you can just trample on? It’s a simple ideology of Cause = effect! who caused this mess in the first place?
Jonijo! Exactly my point. The impact was felt as soon as those guys downed tools. I believe for health workers a day’s stoppage is enough to send a shivering impact. I don’t see why those guys don’t strategize on their strike action; they always equate themselves with people doing non-essential work; it is sad.
Result of instant actions taken without planning. Let govt swallow their pride and reinstate the nurses
Why reinstate an employee who fails to exculpate herself? If they have genuine reasons for participating in an illegal strike let them exculpate themselves. This is just a temporal setback and by monday next week all the positions will be filled in by new nurses. We are tired of the same faces, the same nurses who are always inciting others to strike. Why should it be always UTH nurses inciting other nurses? There may be a few evil elements and we must quickly flash them out. The government is firm on this one and those who will stand a chance to be reinstated will find themselves in rural areas.
Mr.Saizi!I can see that you are so ignorant of the way the health system functions.
“This is just a temporal setback and by monday next week all the positions will be filled in by new nurses”
Yes the aim is to fill up the positions with the new inexperienced nurses so that it looks like the situation has normalised.What you can not resplace is experience.There are specialized nurese like those in maternity/labour ,ICU and theatre.How is it going to be normal in these depts?
In 2000,Chiluba firesd the doctors .Did that end strikes by doctors?
@st jude
Think before you blog, tu soswe utu twaliya sana. Let them parade their soswez on camera now after killing so many innocent lives as a result of their heartless behavior.
Dont condenm grz blame tu soswe, HH, NEVERLANDS, ZCTU.
We should all pray for our leaders,
But the direction of the prayer is up to you, whether you are praying for them to be removed or for them to have wisdom to rule.
So government wants to re-employ then pay out settling in allowances! What an imprudent way of running the country!
If anything government should be blamed for the nurses strike! Government deceived the nurses and other public service workers over the ‘increments’!
Wait till we the voters dismiss this good for nothing PF govt,they’ll affect operations at Millpark Hospital due to mass shock.Worst govt ever.
There are a lot of Ukwa’s distant relatives in Muchinga doing nothing. Please employ them as nurses. After all the only important qualifications in this PF government are tribe and relationship to His Excellence and/or the so called First lady.
It is you who is sick in the Head, all you see is tribe. do you think that statehouse is the one who pays salaries. there are other people whose job is to pay others… even when they make mis calculations it is not state hous. when you talk like that we think you are TONGA as a result we write off HH, when in fact he has good Ideas but you as an individual you demonise him by your tribal remarks. you think in Muchinga people are not educated?
God save us! surely we dont know when zambia will have a serious government with the people at heart! how i wish God could just get rid of all these recycled politians, we are fedup!! when we vote all recieve is rubbish!
If this is what it takes to instill discipline and a sense of professionalism in the nurses then let it be.No reason why so called professionals should embrace insults,singing and dancing in hospital premises at the expense of patients lives while their unions keep on begging them to go back to work.
Ubututu iwe mambala!!!
You must be Sata long lost son’ How ignorant!!
The government had all the information about the pending wage and employment freeze as directed/dictated by IMF/world bank. In their usual greedness, they quickly increased their salaries massively and implemented them. When it came to poor civil servants, they dragged their feet with so many unfulfilled promises. Shamenda even dared to put his ugly on the chopping block if salaries were not normalised for nurses. We all know what happened later. Ndeloleshafye
i meant ugly head
“Nurses dismissal affects operations at UTH”! Surely!
LT headline should have been
“Nurses strike affects operations at UTH” a few days ago.
May Pastor Mumba or HH should have urged nurses to call off their illegal strike.
You are in love with HH!!! Any reason is a good reason to mention his name.
This government had and still have the opportunity to make history in the right way than making ill decision which threatens the freedom of expression in this country.It is quit saddening and imberancing that the powers that have decided to react in the manner he is reacted to a situation which needed understanding and not acting out of impulse.When his carders were killing each other to control there corrupt activties he was quit because he thrives in such an enviroment.
One Person has Freedom of expression. The other has freedom to hire and fire.. every one is excercising their freedoms.
Deport them too since you the working gov’t. Too shameful cos even them so called gov’t officials are on them dying beds,they are still sent to better facilities out of Zambia which simply shows we have a hospital turned into a mortuary and public service workers will never attain their dreams, wet dreams of more money in your pocket.
Excuse me!
This is pure lobbying.
Was it the dismissal or the strike which affected operations at hospitals?
Please Government should not pander to the whims of lobbyists on behalf of their girlfriends.
Hey, fella, dont come here with your fun ideas. we know you are paid to make these comments. That argument that nurses refused to pick up exculpatory letters does not hold. These nurses were represented by ZUNO and all their actions were sanctioned by ZUNO. This is not a case of one individual but a group represented by ZUNO. Why do we punish ZUNO instead. ZUNO should take the blame and the fallout.
U good 4 nothing u were not even there when those irresponsible nurses were on an illegal strike.At the kapinga opposite the casualt,they danced and sung while insulting their employers.Meanwhile patients were dying.Ata se lazyness mwefima Zedian.
And what are the Doctors doing at that time? Be realistic, nurses are not doctors. Nurses alone cannot prescribe medication. Instead of picking on them, why instead do not look at the reasons which led to the strike? By the way, our Minister of Labor has suddenly lost voice? How come? Has he exhausted supply of fake promises or is still calculating nurses salary comparison with neighboring Countries?
When these nurses went on strike did the operation of UTH not affect what the difference now? The government accepted to listen to their demand but there did not return back to duties. We should not blame our government. I don’t belong to any party but I’m supporting the government.
THAT IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU HAVE A PRESIDENT THAT HAS NEVER SEEN A CLASSROOM. SATA IS AN ILLITERATE WHO CANT PLAN. HE CANT SOLVE A BASIC PROBLEM. TO HIM WHAT WORKS IS INTIMIDATTION AND DIVIDE AND RULE ELENTARY PSYCOLOGY.
@ZP (Zabwino Palibe)
ROBERT MUGABE WHO IS EVEN MORE EDUCATED THAN ANY OF THE OPPOSITION POLITICAL PARTY LEADERS IN ZAMBIA ACTUALLY FIRED ALL HIS MEDICAL DOCTORS.
AND YOU WHO IS CLAIMING TO BE MORE LITERATE THAN SATA, WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THE FOLLOWING WORDS:
“INTIMIDATTION”, “ELENTARY”, “PSYCOLOGY”
CHECH YOUR DICTIONARY IF INDEED YOU ARE LITERATE.
SORRY, I AM ALSO ILLITERATE. “CHECH” SHOULD HAVE BEEN WRITTEN AS “CHECK”
@Chisenga:
Comrade Mugabe does not need Zimbabwean nurses. He is enjoying the best medical care money can buy in Singapore.
OUR NURSES WERE SINGING AND DANCING WHEN THEY WERE ON STRIKE. IN THE MEANTIME, HAPLESS PATIENTS WERE DYING DESPITE PLEAS FROM MANAGEMENT AND GOVERNMENT TO THEM TO RETURN TO WORK, THEY DEFIED.
TODAY, HUSBANDS AND BOYFRIENDS OF DISMISSED NURSES ARE UP IN ARMS! THEY ARE LOBBYING FOR THEM TO BE RE-INSTATED.
This PR Manager must be dismissed for misleading the stakeholders, in this case the Zambian people. PR is based on mutual trust and therefore, is supposed to be based on truth; it is not meant for damage control as this manager is applying it. The essence of PR is to ensure you get to the same level of understanding with stakeholders, and the information disseminated must be TRUTHFULL. Already you can easily tell that even the student nurses and defence personnel have not filled the void caused by the absence of qualified nurses. If you tell the truth, stakeholders will rise and give you support. Lies never last because the truth always comes out and exposes all the lies no matter how carefully they may be sugar-coated. Zambian people already know the truth about the problems at UTH.
Questioner@18. If you met Mwenya in person, you wouldn’t say that., he is a top drawer PR. He can leave that job today and get the next one tomorrow. What did you want him to say? In any case the fired nurses were not working for over 10 days, infact the situation is better off now since there is no one making noise to the sick in the hospital premises. ie the dancing and singing by the so called professionals.
Thats obvious! Retaliation can never be good for anyone, the side effects are even deadly than the Cause and Action. So next time we find ourselves in such a situation, lets meet each other somewhere were we can achieve a Win Win situation!
The Government has given chance to the Nurses to re-apply , isn’t that goodwill enough?. Those who love their profession will get back and serve the Zambian masses but those with arrogance and have rich Husbands/boyfriends should stay away from Hospital because they are ‘merchants of Death’.
This gvt should have been impeached by now if we had a parliament with teeth. As Zambians we just useless . Nothing is working well in our country yet we are all quiet
“…waiting for the public service management division to employ….” This is dreaming. There are very very few nurses who are unemployed. Where will they get them from? How long will the recruitment take? How many people will have to die before action is taken to stop this nonsense? I urge the authorities to swallow their pride, reinstate the nurses (you can still punish them by an official warning or reprimand).
long live his excellency Micheal Chilufya Sata
Let us not forget that just last month, GRZ threatened to revoke the mining license for KCM if they fired one striking worker.
Now that the shoe is on the other foot, GRZ fires over 150 nurses. Is this fair? Can people see the double standard here?
Or is the song “Donchi Kubeba” still echoing in their ears?
#OneZambia
Iwe KCM wanted to fire workers because they wanted to reduce production costs and not that KCM workers went on an ILLEGAL STRIKE. Which double standards are u talking about STYOPET!!!
You are failing to understand. what is the reason that the nurses went on strike?
They went on strike because gvt was trying to reduce production i.e by not paying nurses what they are due or rather the salary increment that was promised. they were promised something and they were right in standing up for themselves. Why make a promise one intends not to honor?
PF and Fred M’membe are hypocrites of the highest order. When Shoprite attempted to fire illegally striking workers, governement threatened to send them away to Johannesburg!! When KCM attempted a restructure, it ended up with MD being deported. But how quickly these PF people rush to fire essential workers. Strange how some people reason.
Jairos@25. You surely have missed the point. You rightly referred to nurses as essential workers but still put them in the same category as shoprite workers and KCM, can’t you see the difference?
Nurses as essential workers CAN NOT go on strike ,can you imagin you wake up one morning only to hear the police have gone on strike? I don’t support the firing of anyone but i was so shocked to see nurses singing and dancing in hospital premises all in the name of more money in their pockets meanwell somebody was dying just a few meters away, shocking.
No you are yhe one missing the point.If nurses are essential workers then we should respect them by paying them decent salaries and not equate them with hospital cleaners.
History repeats itself.KK also at onme time was paying cleaners more thatn junior doctors.When they went on strike he fired them and gues what Botswana was willing to employ those doctors.
Bwana let history repeats itself. These are not K.K. days or the year 1998. Lets see if they will even make it to Botswana. We have more nurses and doctors in Zambia now. The hospital is not a dancing ground for matured people. Let the nurses swallow their little pride and know that there are many essential workers in Zambia who are even getting less than them. Lets see if the fired nurses will gather and dance again. impossible – no more dancing most of them are know licking their wounds and regretting. Viva PF
Hehehehe!goebels,chief propagandist uyo!!
@CHALO DONT WORRY IT STARTED WITH SAKENI WARMING UP TO CHIKUSU BY NEXT YR WE WILL HAVE A 21 DAYS NATIONAL MOURNING ALL THESE PROBLEMS WIL GO WITH HIM ON HIS HEAD ANSWERING WHO KILLED CHILUBA HOPE HE WIL NOT BE SENTENCED TO ANOTHER DEATH 4 KILLING KAFUPI
Do you think people die because they are old. wabepa fye boy. so apa waliputula then utomba fye.. that will kill you the old men will be around.
is there anything wrong with this, a kasonde, a chilufya, a mwaba, a mulenga, a kaonka.?administration structure?
Eyee kwena chachine,”Kachimwamuka” Kasonde,Chllufya,Mwaba,Mulenga,Kasonka!
I think we need an outsider to rule this country. When RB was in power everyone spoke of Ngoni’s etc overwhelming government; when Mwanawasa was there it was family tree (there was no admission of Bantu Botatwe taking hold, mostly); when Chiluba was there it was all confusion from Bemba domination to Zairean domination… now we have all Bemba-sounding names lumped into one igloo… amazing. Perhaps when an outsider comes we will rightly scramble to figure out where in the world the appointments are coming from…
Inconsistencies! Wrong, untimely pronouncements, pew, the knock-on effects which causes didsatisifactions. What is the root cause? Who started it all? Start something and let others suffer unemployment because of your own faulty reasoning! No longer at ease.
The biggest problem we have in Zambia is the government itself, always yap yap yap without thinking. Declarations and promises they would never fulfil.
@7 chalo bantu
You had the choice of voting for HEMCS or aromatic alderhyde formalderhyde privatisation don HH or even tithe thieving NEVERLANDS if he had stood, so stop bringing useless ZWD shallow thinking on LT.
in 1992, bankers took the newly elected FTJ GRZ for granted. They went on strike at will, danced and ululated just coz ftj was from labour movement. Then ftj decided enough was enough, he fired all and sundry. Since then,there has never been a strike from our friends who count kwacha notes and forex.
Was it a government bank? All the banks in Zambia are now privately owned and your PF govt has no business meddling in their affairs. So you think if Barclays workers went on strike Sata would fire them? Tiziganiza please
A huge hospital operating on plan B, that is not being serious at all. How does the system continue as though everything is fine? The govt should re-instate the nurses or recruit, before the recruitment freeze kicks in. May be this is the way to manage a potential budget over run in 2014.
Patients dying is not a temporal setback! Unfortunately, many of the comments on this matter have been devoid of critical analysis. It is of course easier to blame nurses rather failure of leadership in resolving this issue. Bad leaders unfortunately are incapable of finding sustainable solutions to problems but use force, coercion, threats etc. The biggest question Zambians need to ask themselves in every situation is ‘who wins and who loses’. Unfortunately, it is poor people that suffer! Govt might feel powerful for their action, but to any objective Zambian, they are absolute failures! Zambians must be really worried that we have a govt that we cannot depend on to meaningfully resolve crises – firing nurses and failing to bring in fertiliser, all life threatening do not inspire!
lets make money fellaz click on the following link : http://taskwealth.com/?id=14479
You are all Tired, you have talked enough. The Minister has asked the same Nurses to re apply. Those who think the money is not enough will not re apply. then those who think they have people to look after they will apply. takuli kukonkelesha abakashi baba finondo.
GOVERNMENT THREATENED
KCM, SHOPRITE AND THE LIKE WITH DISMISSAL
FOR NOT FOLLOWING LAID DOWN PROCEDURES WHEN LAYING OFF EMPLOYEES. EVERYONE FROM THE OPPOSITION APPLAUDED GOVERNMENT TIMELY ACTION.
WHY SHOULD GOVERNMENT BE CALLED TO ACCOUNT FOR THE SAME ACTION THIS TIME JUST BECAUSE OUR WIVES AND GIRL FRIENDS ARE THE ONES AFFECTED?