|
Zim doctors end strike
06/03/2007 13:02 - (SA)
Harare - Zimbabwean doctors, who have been on strike since December, returned to work last week, but lecturers at the country's main university vowed to continue with industrial action, reports said on Tuesday.
Health minister David Parirenyatwa confirmed that 295 junior doctors resumed work on March 2. He did not give details of new pay packages.
As of March 2, the total number of doctors on duty was 295. Only two were still on industrial action, Parirenyatwa told the state-controlled Herald newspaper.
The strike by doctors, who at one point were joined by nurses, crippled major hospitals in the capital and in the second city of Bulawayo.
Doctors were demanding a monthly wage of Z$5m, nearly one hundred times their previous monthly salaries of Z$58 000, which was scarcely enough to buy a loaf of bread a day.
Independent reports have suggested that the doctors have had to content themselves with new salaries that are far less than what they wanted.
'Struggling to survive'
Last week the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe said an average family of six needs more than Z$680 000 per month for basics.
Doctors, like many professionals and workers in Zimbabwe, are struggling to survive amid an economic meltdown marked by inflation of more than 1 500% and spiralling prices of most goods and services.
Meanwhile lecturers at the University of Zimbabwe in Harare, who also recently went on strike, turned down an undisclosed wage increase offered by the government, the Herald said.
"Although the new salary structure was welcome, it did not address our plight and, as such, we remain on the collective job action until the issues we raised are addressed," James Mahlaule, the president of the association of university teachers, told the Herald.
Lecturers want salaries of between Z$1.7m and Z$3.2m a month.
Sapa-dpa
- SAPA
|
News
Zimbabwe Special Report
