6 July 2009
The Zambia Union of Nurses Organisation (ZUNO) has commended President Rupihah Banda for pardoning health workers that were on strike but has also appealed to the president to rescind Government's decision to withhold salaries for nurses.
ZUNO president Thom Yung'ana said in a statement in Lusaka yesterday that the gesture by the president was appreciated considering the strike was illegal.
"The strike was regrettable and we hope every stakeholder, the Government and unions have not only learnt lessons but will work swiftly to find solutions to the plight of nurses and avoid occurrences of such incidences.
" We would like to appeal to the president to rescind the decision to withhold salaries for nurse," Mr Yung'ana
He said that withholding the salaries of nurses would defeat the purpose of forgiveness exhibited by the president and worsen the suffering of nurses who were paid meager amounts.
Mr Yung'ana said if the Government was committed to engaging the unions in order to find collective solutions to the problems faced by workers in the heath sector, imposing a punishment in form of withholding salaries would deprive unions an enabling environment for meaningful negotiations.
"Withholding the salary will even make it difficult for nurses to meet the house rental costs and in turn suffer evictions, since the majority of nurses are already in huge house rental debts considering that they currently get paid as low as K200, 000 monthly housing allowance," Mr Yung'ana said.
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