By Brenda Kayo:
National Organisation of Nurses and Midwives (Nonm) and Physicians Association Union of Malawi (Paum) have lamented the government’s delays to address their concerns.
They have since threatened to take industrial action to force the government’s hand on the issue.
At the heart of the issue are the two groups’ claims that the government is failing to live up to its promise of implementing a 15 percent salary increment.
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They also accuse the government of failing to follow through its commitment of increasing several allowances, including locum rates, risk or medical allowance, government top-up and professional allowance.
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Following this, Nonm President Shouts Simeza and Paum President Solomon Chomba have indicated, in a statement, that their members will be forced to take industrial action.
“The delay in the implementation of the agreed-upon allowances is disappointing and undermines our commitment to contact and dialogue….
“Nonm and Paum have collectively resolved to proceed with a sit-in as per the collective demand of the membership of both organisations,” the two leaders say.
On April 30 this year, Health Minister Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda wrote the groups, informing them that all the additional requirements had been sent to the Treasury for further processes.
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“The ministry commits to provide all necessary updates as provided for in the conciliation settlement agreement within the period of two weeks,” Kandodo Chiponda said.
However, the healthcare workers claim that this has not happened.
Meanwhile, Ministry of Health spokesperson Adrian Chikumbe has said there is a better way of resolving the issue than risking lives of patients.
“We believe that better alternatives are still available to achieve the demands which they are making without risking the lives of our patients and clients.
“Like we said before, the Ministry of Health finds their demands well deserved but is still waiting for feedback from other stakeholders,” Chikumbe said.
The health workers are also proposing that the professional allowance should jump from K18,000 to K30,000 for juniors and to K28,000 for seniors
They also want government top-up allowances to rise from K20,000 to K70,000 for juniors and K71,400 for seniors.
On risk allowances, the healthcare workers are proposing K150,000 from K50,000 while the juniors want to cart homeK60,000.
