The Health Apex Council is hereby giving a 14-day notice to the Board to address the following grievances failure of which we reserve the option of exercising our right to industrial action provided for by the Constitution of Zimbabwe and the Labour Act section 104.
Cost of Living Adjustment: Whilst we appreciate the recent adjustment in public transport fares to at least 0.50 cents per trip, the general cost of living continues to go up across the board. Apart from transport expenses, employees have families to feed, accommodation to pay for and other expenses to take care of. It is common knowledge that RTGS salaries have lost their value under the current hyperinflationary environment and repeated pleas have been presented to the board on the need for the cost of living adjustments. The employees’ incapacitation to report for duty under the current circumstances continue unabated, making the need to return value to our earnings a necessity.
Re-grading of Health Workers: Since 2010, some health workers are still in wrong grades even after acknowledgement by the Board that there has been a grading bungling within the system. We have made several presentations to the Board in previous engagements to correct the anomaly but little has been done.
Payment of Locums: Some cadres have worked on locums since October 2018 to date and are yet to be paid of that work done. We have brought this issue to the attention of the Board on several platforms but it has also yielded little results. This has also become a matter of concern to the Health Apex considering the rate of inflation.
Mass Recruitments within the Board: We also note with concern that the Board has gone on a massive recruitment drive of different cadres within its Secretariat but little has been done in the recruitment of key professionals who do the actual work on the ground. We therefore, question the Board’s priorities regarding human resources in the health sector. The health Apex has on several occasions presented staffing challenges within our health institutions – a situation that has affected the efficient delivery of services to our clients but surprisingly, the Board decides to prioritize recruitments within its secretariat.
Working Environment: The situation in our hospitals has not changed much. Issues of Staffing, medicines and equipment remain of concern. In most instances, the blame is shifted to the health worker yet much of the time the situation would be beyond his/her control.
Flexible Working Hours: The Health Apex also presented to the Board that some institutions were reluctant to implement flexible working hours as approved by the office of the Permanent Secretary. According to the approval, the flexible working hours are supposed to be effective until a review has been done on cost of living. The board has failed to provide direction to all institutions on Government’s position regarding this issue despite repeated presentations.
This notice, therefore, comes as constant previous engagements with the Board aimed at addressing these same issues amicably failed to yield positive results.
Source: Health Apex Council
