A total of 26 health officials from Bushbuckridge have been suspended by the department of health yesterday following their complaints about poor working conditions.
“The suspension of the administrative workers came immediately after they disrupted the services of other clinics and hospitals.They moved around making disruptions in hospitals and clinics. We cannot allow that, they cannot deny people their right to health care. The problem is between the employer and employee and that should not affect service delivery for the benefit of the public,” explained Dumisane Malamule spokesperson for the department.
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He added that there are procedural ways on which they needed to raise their concerns, not just to disrupt other employees.
The workers’ demands relate to poor infrastructure, in some of the institutions which are in a dilapidated state, shortage of employees and lack of working tools including computers.
“They also wanted the budget to be centralized, demand which the department attended to a while ago. So far the 26 employees remain suspended. We are still to engage with National Health Education & Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) on the issues raised,” added Malamule.
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Mr Welcome Mnisi, the secretary of Nehawu said the union was disappointed on the department’s resolution of suspending the workers who raised genuine issues concerning their places of work.
“We are not happy about the decision mostly because the workers are raising genuine issues. This is not the first time such issues were raised. The suspension doesn’t sink well with us,” he said.
Mnisi called on the department to resolve the issues raised by the employees. “We are still going to engage with the department in an attempt to finding amicable ways of resolving the matters raised by the employees. They will not find joy when Nehawu decides to react,” he said.
