Bid to slash Mpumalanga doctors’ overtime pay slammed

The Mpumalanga department of health has come under fire for attempting to reduce the salaries of newly appointed doctors.

The department sent a circular informing the doctors employed on 1 January that their overtime contract would lapse in March and not be renewed.

In a letter seen by The Citizen the department stated: “Effective from 1 January, all newly appointed medical professionals may only sign commuted overtime contracts valid until 31 March.”

Circular withdrew after doctors threaten strike

The department withdrew the circular after the doctors’ union threatened to strike.

SA Medical Trade Union provincial leader Mandla Matshabe said: “We have informed our members to down tools as soon as this cancellation takes place.

“If they revoke the overtime contract, it means the doctors will only work from 8am until 4pm because they will no longer have a contract forcing them to do overtime.”

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He said what the department was doing not only affected the employees’ livelihood, but also endangered lives of patients.

Matshabe said the department spent a lot of money on litigation cases because the doctors were overworked which sometimes led them to make mistakes.

He said revoking the contract of the new doctors would make the situation worse.

Revoking contract

“The cancellation of the contract will cause a lot of unnecessary suffering. We are calling on other provinces to join Mpumalanga to fight this war. For now, we have won the battle, but the war is still on as we don’t know what is going to happen when the contracts expire,” said Matshabe.

He said the doctors would today march to the premier’s office to demand the employment of those unemployed.

However, Mpumalanga health MEC Sasekani Manzini said: “It is true that we had issued a circular to all doctors that stipulate that doctors who have signed commuted overtime, their contract will be downgraded to group (2). This means that all those who had contracts which were in group three, which is a scale with more hours, will be downgraded.”

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Manzini said the department was overspending but the union disagreed. “The unions and the department then agreed that the circular on overtime will be withdrawn and further engagements involving all parties will be conducted and the matter will be finalised before the end of the financial year.”