State doctors on Friday continued boycotting work as nurses in the second largest city of Bulawayo were reported to have also begun striking to press for more pay and improved working conditions. Conditions have deteriorated at state hospitals with patients reportedly dying of diseases that could be treated since intern doctors downed tools two weeks ago to pressure the government to increase their salaries and other perks. Health Minister David Parirenyatwa was on Friday morning quoted by state-owned media as having said that doctors had agreed to return to work after he told them during a Thursday meeting that their grievances were being looked into. But Hospital Doctors Association president Kudakwashe Nyamutukwa told ZimOnline that the industrial action by intern, or junior doctors as they are commonly known in Zimbabwe, had now spread to other major centres across the country.
The junior doctors, who effectively run the public health delivery system because senior doctors spend most of their time at their private rooms, earn a salary of $56 800 per month plus $57 000 in housing, transport and on-call allowances. They want their salaries hiked to $5 million to cushion them against rampant inflation. To exacerbate the situation at state hospitals – the source of health for the vast majority of Zimbabweans - senior doctors who were spending more time at public hospitals in the absence of interns were said to have now also joined in the industrial action in solidarity with their juniors’ demands for better pay.
In Bulawayo nurses at the state-run Mpilo and United Bulawayo Hospitals were said to have either stopped going to work or were on a go-slow to press the government to increase salaries from the $40 000 to $600 000 per month.
Meanwhile striking workers at the state-owned Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority and who on Thursday switched off power supplies to Harare had yesterday agreed to return to work while negotiations on a new salary increase were in progress. The workers want a 1 150 percent salary hike. But management at the power utility that is virtually bankrupt due to years of maladministration and corruption are prepared to only pay 144 percent.
Analysts predict more work stoppages as workers both in the public and private sectors attempt to pressure employers to pay them more money in order to make ends meet in a country where inflation is pegged at 1098.8 percent and is rising.