Nurses strike over salaries

Service delivery at city council hospitals and polyclinics has been disrupted by a nurses strike in Zimbabwe's capital Harare. The nurses went on strike on Monday over a salary dispute with the city council, demanding a second 100 percent salary hike after receiving a similar increase in January. Chairman of the Harare Municipal Workers' Union, Cosmas Bungu, said the 100 percent salary increase awarded to council workers in January this year was not enough to keep pace with the rising cost of living. Inflation has hovered around 600 percent in recent months. Bungu said some nurses had also complained that they did not have uniforms and protective clothing. "We presented our grievances to the City of Harare, in writing, to the acting mayor [Sekesayi Makwavarara] on 23 April, but no action was taken. That's why we have resorted to going on strike," said Bungu. Makwavarara could not comment on the allegations, and instead referred all questions to the Harare City Council public relations manager, Lesley Gwindi, who said the council was negotiating with the striking nurses. Gwindi urged the nurses to report for duty and said the council would soon provide health professionals with the protective clothing they required. Minister of Health and Child Welfare, Dr David Parirenyatwa, said at the Nurse of the Year Awards ceremony in Harare last week that nurses should find other ways of negotiating for salary increases besides striking.