Union to shut down health services
NATIONAL Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) members intend shutting down health care services today when they march to the Office of the Premier in Kimberley to hand over a memorandum of grievances.
Union members handed over a list of grievances to the MEC for Health four weeks ago, and Nehawu branch secretary Moleme Moleme said that their demands had not been addressed.
He said that a thousand members from the West End Hospital, Kimberley Hospital, the Professor ZK Matthews Hospital in Barkly West as well as administrative staff and off-duty medical professionals, including doctors and nurses, would participate in the march, which will assemble at the Kimberley Hospital Complex parking lot at 9am today.
“There will be skeleton staff on duty for emergency cases, but everybody else will join our rolling mass action,” Moleme claimed.
They are calling for the removal of the HOD of Health, Liz Botes, and her team, who were appointed to improve supply chain management compliance and finance regulation.
Botes was deployed from the Premier’s Office and was previously the HOD of the Department of Social Development.
Six senior officials from the Department of Social Development were appointed to assist Botes, including the head of supply chain management, the head of finance and the chief financial officer (CFO), in June.
The reshuffle saw the former HOD of Health, Gugulethu Matlaopane, posted to the Premier’s Office and the former CFO, Daniel Gaborone, being appointed at the Department of Social Development.
Nehawu has objected to the influx of staff from the Department of Social Development to the Department of Health.
Moleme stated that it was unfair that officials were transferred on higher salary bands and that the union wanted further clarity on cost containment issues that were resulting in the overloading of medical staff.
The union has also accused Botes of failing to meet with members to address their demands.
Spokeswoman for the Department of Health, Lulu Mxekezo, stated that they had not been notified of the intended shutdown today.
“The department will only engage with labour unions within the recognised legal frameworks and that will not change. To the extent that the union’s actions fall outside the legitimate collective bargaining processes, the department will most certainly implement remedies available to it,” said Mxekezo.
Meanwhile, Cosatu’s provincial secretary, Anele Gxoyiya, appealed to all members to participate in the march as part of the national strike day activities on October 7.
“We assure workers that their jobs are safe as the strike is protected in terms of the Labour Relations Act and no worker will face disciplinary action for embarking on that strike,” said Gxoyiya.
“There will be a provincial march in Kimberley to deliver a memorandum to the Premier and the captains of industry.”
He encouraged all other workers to stage pickets outside their respective places of employment.
“We are united in our fight against labour brokers, outsourcing, job losses, the amendment of the tax laws, the struggle for the implementation of the National Minimum Wage and the National Health Insurance.”