COVID-19 era contract nurses cry foul
MBABANE – Some nurses who were employed on contract basis at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic say the decision by government to employ them based on the date of their graduation should have been communicated, prior to them accepting the contracts.
This comes after government began the process of hiring healthcare workers. According to the nurses, the hiring of healthcare workers will be done according to the year of graduation of the worker as they would first consider those who graduated during the 2017 to 2018 period.
Problem
They stated that this was a problem because during the time of accepting the contracts of working during the pandemic, they were promised that they would eventually be permanently hired.
According to a nurse who requested to speak on condition of anonymity, it was not fair that they, as healthcare workers, who risked their lives to be in the forefront during COVID-19 pandemic, would not get employment while they were promised that they would.
“We risked our lives at a time when even our government did not know what was going on.Anumber of nurses declined the offers by government but because we had hopes that showing such resilience would increase our opportunities of being hired, we took the opportunity. We are angry at the fact that we were not told during the time of being given the contracts that we would eventually be sidelined due to us having graduated at a later stage than others,” she said.
Another healthcare worker stated that he felt they needed to be given a fair chance by allowing them to go through the interview process to prove themselves without being segregated through the year in which they graduated.
“I think that a fair process would be having the people who were hired on contract basis given the opportunity and let them prove themselves through the interview process. We know that government will not hire all of us at the same time but at least give us a chance to prove ourselves as we all placed our lives at risk to ensure that emaSwati were taken care of during a time when healthcare workers died, while ensuring that people got the best health care,” he said. Swaziland Democratic Nurses Union (SWADNU) Secretary General (SG) Mayibongwe Masangane stated that the decision by government to hire according to who graduated early was fair. He said this was because it would not be a good move to have someone who had been at home for a shorter period of time be hired first while another who had been unemployed for longer, remained unemployed.
“We, as a union, had a meeting with the Ministry of Health and yes they did mention that they would first hire those in the 2017/2018 graduation period. We do not see anything wrong with that, as it means that people who had not been employed for a longer period of time will now find employment. What is good about this is that they promised us that among their requirements of hiring, all eligible healthcare workers should have been part of those who were under contract during the pandemic,” he said. He mentioned that the only solution to this problem would be to have government increase the number of posts as the need for more healthcare workers was evident.
“I think that government needs to at least increase the number of vacancies in order for more healthcare workers to get opportunities for employment,” he said.
The ministry had previously released a statement stating that it had recruited six medical officers, five radiographers, 105 staff nurses and three dental therapists. In the statement, Minister Lizzie Nkosi said currently, the ministry was in the process of hiring 13 medical officers, 74 staff nurses, 90 general nurses, 40 nursing assistants and 12 environmental health practitioners.