HEALTH workers’ suffering has reached a crescendo as the government is side-lining the sector when approving salary increments prompting their wages to lag behind what is currently being paid to other government workers.
Information obtained by NewZimbabwe.com suggests that despite other civil servants enjoying periodic increments recently, health sector workers are still earning US$200 Covid19 allowance over and above ZW$26 133 basic salary, transport allowance of ZW$2 426, housing allowance of ZW$ 2 776, H factor ZW$5 483 and special civil service allowance ZW$5 483.
While teachers unions and the rest of the Civil Service sector are currently immersed in negotiations for yet another pay rise, the Health sector now fears that they will be left out once again. Health Apex Council spokesperson, Lloyd Sarai Wednesday laid bare the ‘inhumane’ treatment they were getting from their employer
“We are suffering from serious segregation as a Health Sector. In April we were left out when others were given a 100% salary increase as well as US$50. We wrote several letters asking the employer to address this anomaly but it seems our calls are falling to a deaf ear.
“Only on 15 June when the employer convened a bipartite negotiating meeting, this was after a year without talks. The talks did not yield anything as the employer did not bring anything meaningful to the table,” he said.
Some employees in the sector now suspect that the government is out to teach them a lesson for staging demonstrations in the past as well as fleeing the country in search of greener pastures. But a visibly tormented Sarai said the silence by the government has left many health workers with no choice but to leave the country following the collapse and stagnation of recent talks.
“Then again, we have a situation where the employer dictates the composition our the Health Apex team which poses the risk of assigning a compromised team.
“We strongly feel that we should select our team without any inference from the employer. We also have a situation where some health workers are not benefiting from neither health sector specific allowances nor what the rest of other civil servants will have been given,” he said.
He said such salary distortions have in turn divided the sector after leaving juniors in most earning more than their seniors.
“We continue to question the manner in which the employer makes decisions on our welfare but without adequate respect to our input. This has many a time brought in half-baked solutions and further bias in the payment of donor retention allowances,” Sarai said.
He said there is a need for everyone to benefit from the cake in the principle of Ubuntu.
“So as the Health sector, we are still negotiating to correct the historical imbalances which will bring us to the April 2023 baseline before discussing the June 2023 cost of living adjustment.
“We believe dialogue is the only way out, anything short of it may hint at the existence of a third force trying to bring health workers on a collision course with their employer,” added Sarai.
Source NewZimbabwe