NYUSI CALLS FOR DIALOGUE TO END DOCTORS’ STRIKE
Maputo, 9 Dec (AIM) – Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi on Thursday said the government had considered stopping implementation of the new Unified Wage Table (TSU) for the country’s doctors.
The purpose, he added, would have been to find out the real motivation for the discontent among doctors against the TSU.
The Mozambican Medical Association (AMM), which claims to represent doctors, began a 21 day strike on Monday in protest against the way doctors’ wages are handled under the TSU. The new table consolidates alliances and bonuses into the basic wage, but the AMM is demanding the re-introduction of bonuses.
Neither the AMM nor the Ministry of Health has said how many doctors are on strike, but reports reaching AIM suggest that the strike is having a significant impact on some Maputo health units, but not in the central and northern provinces.
Indeed, Health Minister Armindo Tiago said that not a single doctor is on strike in Cabo Delgado, Niassa or Zambezia provinces.
Nyusi, speaking in the Zambezia provincial capital, Quelimane, where he inaugurated a 32-room condominium for doctors working at Quelimane Central Hospital, said that doctors should opt for dialogue, and not for attitudes which could bring serious consequences to the public.
Any dissatisfaction in the public administration, he stressed, should be solved through dialogue, and not through actions which contrast with the oath sworn by doctors to save human lives.
“We are committed to doing everything for the good of our people”, said Nyusi, cited by the independent television channel STV. “For years and years, wages have been out of sync, and we, in the government, have taken the initiative to stabilise them. So please do not block us. There are no first class or second class public servants, and so we have taken this initiative (the TSU) within the few possibilities that exist”.
“In my government, there is no room for people to be afraid of speaking to members of the Executive”, he added. “We talk even with those who think they are ideologically different from us. I don’t see any problem for which there is no solution”.
He claimed the strike is driven by a handful of people “who are agitating the majority”. The government would not stop paying the doctors through the TSU, just because of this pressure from a small minority.
Tiago warned that doctors on strike will not be paid for the days on which they fail to show up for work. It was a norm of the public service that workers have their pay cut for every day they are absent without good reason.
“We shall apply the norms”, said Tiago. “The law states that anyone who does not go to work is marked as absent, and absences have implications for wages”.
He did not want to classify the strike as legitimate or illegitimate, “because there are various interpretations. What we are saying is that we shall simply apply the law”.
Although Tiago has been accused of “threatening” the strikers, it is normal practice across the globe that employers do not pay workers who are on strike.
Tiago claimed that only a small minority of doctors had obeyed the AMM call for strike action. On the first day of the strike (Monday), 11 per cent of doctors had been absent. The figure was 14 per cent on Tuesday, and 13 per cent on Wednesday.
“Essentially, the hospitals are offering all services”, said Tiago, “although in some cases there are delays”.
(AIM)
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