Outpatients suffer as nurses begin strike to demand better terms

Long lines of outpatients formed outside hospitals in Bujumbura, the Burundian capital, after nurses began an indefinite strike on Monday to demand better pay and working conditions. Officials of the nurses' trade union said the caregivers were on strike to pressure the government to implement an accord they signed in December 2004, following a series of short-term strikes. The chairman of the nurses' trade union, Mélance Hakizimana, told IRIN on Monday that the nurses were only offering emergency services. He said the accord signed between the government and the nurses' union was to have been implemented in January. "We have waited for months, but as nothing came, we decided to suspend work," he added. Nurses would not resume work unless the accord was totally implemented, Hakizimana said. Beginning in October 2004, the nurses staged a series of strikes to demand overtime pay, the consideration of their professional risks, free medical care and the payment of bonuses. Negotiations between the government and the trade union led to the December accord. However, Public Health Minister Jean Kamana said on Monday the nurses had no reason to strike. "If the accord was to be into force in January, they are aware that its implementation needs more time to be discussed in the Council of Ministers," he said. He added that by the time the accord was signed, the government's budget was already under analysis at the National Assembly and "it is not easy to revise it". Kamana said the nurses' demands amounted to more than 2.451 billion Burundi francs (US $2.4 million). However, he said, the Council of Ministers had not ignored the nurses' plight and was considering other urgent matters, such as the draft on communal law and the electoral code. He said the nurses' issue was on Tuesday's agenda of the Council of Ministers.