UTH Nurses Cold on PF over Labour Dispute Some nurses who were fired from the University Teaching Hospital have vowed not to vote for the Patriotic Front (PF) in the January 20, 2015 presidential election. Some of the nurses who were interviewed said the PF was a draconian government that had failed to respond to the needs and aspirations of workers in the public service. The nurses said the PF had opted to mistreat them instead addressing the issues that were raised by the health care providers. Last year, the Michael Sata government fired over 250 nurses from various health institutions across Zambia for going on what the then authorities called an illegal strike. The nurses were pressing for better pay and improved conditions of service in a prolonged strike action that paralysed operations in many hospitals. But last week, Health minister Joseph Kasonde made a blatant announcement that the government had decided to reinstate the nurses unconditionally, much to the amusement of observers who had questioned why the reinstatement was done ahead of the presidential polls. Early this year, the government issued a conditional amnesty to the nurses that they would be reinstated on condition that they applied for their jobs. Some nurses were offered their jobs but were transferred to rural areas and their terminal benefits were forfeited. Some nurses talked to said they would not forget the pain and suffering they had endured during their release from employment as they vote on January 20, 2015. One of the nurses Chanda Chilumba said the PF government was the worst regime that Zambia had experienced with regard to the treatment of health workers. Chilumba said the PF government had failed to dialogue over real matters that were affecting the delivery of god and adequate health services in Zambia. “As we vote in January, we will vote with the pain and suffering we have experienced at the hands of the PF. We have not forgotten the painful ordeal. Many people in our families have suffered and other people also died and suffered as a result of the careless governance by the PF government,” she said. Another nurse Charity Tembo who had been transferred from UTH to Lundazi said no sane nurse would cast a vote for the PF because of the humiliation and embarrassment the government had caused the health care providers. She said the PF must be shown that the power to govern a country was in the hands of the people and the January 20, 2015 polls were a clear opportunity to teach the PF a lesson in democracy. “Democracy is all about dialogue. We wanted to dialogue with the government but it decided to respond by firing us as if we were criminals. Now our time has come for us to show these politicians in the PF that the power is with us the people. They are going to see red on January 20, 2015,” she said. In the current campaign trails, the PF has been making promises, which they failed to implement in the last three years they had been in government. The PF presidential candidate Edgar Lungu has been making promises such as resintating nurses, reducing the cost of fuel and mealie meal, which have been seen to be contradicting the decisions Michael Sata made, but the new party president has been promising people to continue with the late president’s legacy. zambiareports/2014/12/23/uth-nurses-cold-pf-labour-dispute/
Posted on: Tue, 23 Dec 2014 14:33:47 +0000
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