Zimbabwe Doctors call off strike after carrots and sticks negotiation with PM
By KING SHANGO
Published on: 27th August, 2009
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ZIMBABWE – HARARE – Striking Zimbabwean doctors called off a strike Thursday on humanitarian grounds after downing stethoscopes for two weeks.
They went back to work only with promises that government was looking into their grievances.
It was the charm offensive of the Prime Minister, who summoned the striking doctors to his office on Wednesday and told them frankly that government was broke.
The negotiations took a political dimension, a source said.
Tsvangirai is said to have cited the swine-flu and looming cholera outbreak. The doctors then decided to put the health of the nation first, and called off the strike with a paltry increment of US$44.
A source close to the negotiations told zim NET radio that the Hippocratic oath was invoked in an arm twisting negotiation between the Prime Minister and the doctors.
Tsvangirai recently said there was no better trade unionist than himself. Chizhande told radio: “We went back to work on humanitarian grounds. We saw that the patients are the ones actually suffering while this game of wait and see is being played.
We are actually now lobbying government to re-appoint new people to the Health Services Board and the Hospital Management Board, and dissolve the existing boards that we have, because these people have shown that they have failed.”
The boards angered the doctors when they attempted to fire the ring-leaders of the striking doctors. Last Friday 15 Parirenyatwa Hospital doctors, including Chizhande, received letters of dismissal from the Clinical Director of Parirenyatwa, and several others received dismissal letters from Harare Central Hospital.
Tsvangirai is said to have told the doctors to reapply and that their jobs were guaranteed. Infact the reinstatement of the fired doctors was a carrot in the negotiations, our source said.
The doctors, who earn US$170 and a US$220 stipend from Crown Agents, a British donor, want the salary ramped up to US$1000 plus a US$500 allowance.
The doctors have given the Prime Minister one month to address the issue.
