Nurses and general workers at the Piet Retief Hospital in Mkhondo, Mpumalanga, have downed tools over remuneration related complaints. The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) Secretary in the province, Welcome Mnisi says the union is planning to meet with the Department of Health regarding the issue.
“There have been some inconsistencies in terms of payments. Workers have been engaging the management of the hospital including the district for quite some time without any success. Then the workers decided to withhold their labor until this matter is resolved.”
Health Spokesperson in the province, Dumisani Malamule, says the Health Department will meet with representatives of the protesting workers on Tuesday. Malamule says in the meantime they have agreed with the unions that workers should return to work.
“Workers downed tools last week Thursday complaining about the amount paid to shift workers, apparently it was discovered that the shift workers are not exactly paid the same as compared to other hospitals because there was circulars that were issued from the Department of Public Service and Administration explaining in detail how shift workers are supposed to be paid and the variety between a person who works a shift work that falls within the weekend and a shift work that falls over to a weekday which could be interpreted as a normal working day.”
