Maputo, 10 Oct (AIM) – The Mozambican Medical Association (AMM) claims that “significant progress” has been made in its negotiations with the government, and so the doctors whom the AMM claims to represent have not resumed their national strike.
The last stoppage, which the AMM calls “the second phase of the third national doctors’ strike”, lasted for some 40 days involving, according to the AMM, over 2,000 doctors.
At that time, the AMM gave the government 40 days to solve all the doctors’ concerns. If they failed to do so, the AMM would resume its strike.
That deadline passed on 9 October, but the strike has not resumed and the Association’s leadership has backed away from a further confrontation with the government.
According to AMM spokesperson, Napoleão Viola, cited by the independent television station STV, the AMM will only be able to announce whether its members will resume the strike after a national meeting of doctors. So far no date has been set for this meeting.
Viola said there has been progress in the AMM’s negotiations with the government, but he would give no details.
“The solution is an ongoing process, some important steps have been taken but we think there is still a need to refine the level of solution a little more, because there are aspects that have not yet been solved”, Viola explained vaguely.
He did not say which points had been solved in the negotiations, and which were still in dispute. The next steps, he added, could only be announced after the national meeting of doctors.
“Unfortunately, I am not authorized to talk about specific points of what is really being advanced”, he said, “but I can assure you that there are aspects that have already been advanced”.
The strikers have never been entirely clear over what they want. The government said the sticking point was the enormous overtime payments which the AMM was demanding, far higher than overtime pay in other parts of the public administration.
(AIM)
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