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Botswana: Nurses 'Heated' Over Scarce Skills Pay
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Mmegi/The Reporter (Gaborone)
11 April 2008
Posted to the web 14 April 2008
Bame Piet
Gaborone
Having restored the scarce skills allowance this week, government might have to face the difficult task of convincing nurses that their services are not so important to the society.
President of the Nurses Association of Botswana, Keabitsa Ramantela, confirmed yesterday that "nurses have a heated concern" over the presidential directive approving payment for scarce skills for some civil servants that excluded them.
She said that after receiving countless call from concerned nurses, she was forced to call an emergency meeting yesterday to review the contents of the directive and to explore proper channels to address the issue.
"The nurses want officials to address this issue as a matter of urgency to avoid the explosive possibility of disaster," she cautioned.
She said she was struggling to secure an appointment with Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health to hold a meeting today. Ramantela was hopeful that government would not turn down their request to be included in the 'scarce skills' bracket of government employees.
She said they only have an overtime allowance of 30 percent, which, she complained, was not applied across the board as the presidential directive did with other cadres.
She said that only nurses at D3 scale and below qualified for the allowance, which, she said, created animosity amongst the nurses since in some instances juniors were paid better than their supervisors.
Ramantela would not disclose what the next step would be if their request was unsuccessful, saying they would convene another meeting with the nurses. The NAB has a membership of approximately 2,000 members from government and private health institutions.
Meanwhile, the reintroduction of the allowance for scarce skills seems to have reopened forgotten wounds. The Trainers and Allied Workers Union (TAWU) President, Allan Keitseng, confirmed yesterday that the Ministry of Education and the Directorate of Public Service Management (DPSM) have failed to comply with the Lobatse High Court order made on 15th February 2006.
The court order was made in favour of Chifanile July, Nephious Mwandila, Legion Mathangwane, Nono Matlhaga, Caiphus Dema, Prisca Thapisa, and Dineo Ramatsui who had successfully applied to the court to be included in the scarce skills allowance in terms of Directive No.36 of 1998 dated 22 December 1998.
"The decision not to pay the applicants scarce skills allowance, whilst their colleagues with the same qualifications in the same departments receive the same as a "personal right" is discriminatory in itself and effect and therefore null and void," Justice Key Dingake ruled in 2006.
To date, the order has not been implemented and TAWU has advised the applicants to file a case of contempt of court against responsible officers at DPSM and Teaching Service Management (TSM) under the Ministry of Education, Keitseng confirmed.
The attorney acting on behalf of DPSM and the Ministry of Education, who gave his name only as Gulubane, said "as far as I know, the order was complied with". He said that the Dingake ruling could have been overtaken by events at the time it was implemented.
Gulubane said he was not aware of any complaint about an order that has not been complied with as the case would have come to his attention. He said if there was no compliance 'the responsible officers would face the music'.
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Keitseng expressed disappointment at government's failure to comply with court orders saying they held a meeting with TSM officials who promised they would resolve the matter but they have not.
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