Strike on at national lab service

A WAGE strike by thousands of employees at the National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) has brought pathological services to a halt, the NHLS said yesterday.

NHLS director Shabir Madhi said: “Although the exact impact of the strike cannot yet be determined, the NHLS will put into operation contingency plans to mitigate the risk of compromising the lives of South Africans dependent on the public health sector. It will, however, be unable to offer its full basket of laboratory services as of Wednesday, July 26.”

The NHLS provides diagnostic pathology services to government departments.

Madhi said the unions’ initial demand was a 13% across the board increase while the NHLS could only offer 3%.

The NHLS tabled a revised offer of 7.3% and agreed to other work condition demands, including doing away with outsourcing of services by April.

Said Madhi: “However, the revised offer has not yet been accepted by the unions.

The difficulty in acceding to workers’ demands was worsened by mounting debt by provincial health departments who owed the laboratory millions in unpaid services.”

National Education Health and Allied Workers Union spokesman Khaya Xaba said it had since revised their wage demand down to 7.3%, insourcing of services, a R2 000 housing allowance, a R500 danger and rural allowance. – ANA