Vryheid KZN – Union demands PPE for nurses

Lolo Madonsela
Vryheid District Hospital (VDH) workers – under the National Education, Health & Allied Workers’ Union (NEHAWU) – have been picketing outside the hospital to demand proper Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), as well as danger allowance and the promised salary increment agreed upon in 2018.
NEHAWU Regional Deputy Chairperson Ntokozo Nxumalo said the hospital staff were working without proper PPE and indicated that since June, 216 of the 600 officials have been infected with Covid-19. One passed away.
“We demand proper PPE for every employee. There is not proper PPE, like N95 masks and gowns for Covid-19. When we request the hospital to supply the workers with these critical necessities, we are told that the PPE is at the district office, but when we go to the district office, the PPE is nowhere to be found. So we do not understand why the PPE should be at the district office instead of the facility that is directly dealing with Covid-19 cases? We are also demanding the 1.5% increment that was agreed upon in 2018. It’s two years later and they still have not given that money to employees. Over 216 staff members have been affected by Covid-19, but there is still no risk assessment report. When we request the report, they tell us they are still busy with it, since June. We are now in August and we have cases as well, but we still do not know why there was a high number of infections,” said Nxumalo.

Also read: Civil case against Vryheid Hospital

He said that the picketing will continue, which will be followed by a march, and should their demands not be met, there will be a total shutdown in the health sector.
“On September 3, we will embark on a national march, where we will be sending our memorandum to President Cyril Ramaphosa and to all the Premiers in the nine provinces, and we will expect a response from them on September 10. Should we not receive the responses by then, there will be a total shutdown.” In June, NEHAWU opened a civil case against VDH, alleging that the hospital failed to adhere to Covid-19 precautions. Nxumalo said they opened a case against the employer for negligence regarding Covid-19 precautions, as no screening was being done at the hospital, and that some of the health officials who had tested positive for Covid-19 were never sent to quarantine but were sent back to their work stations to continue work.
“We still do not know what is happening with that case, because no one is giving us any feedback,” added Nxumalo.
VDH had not responded at the time of going to print.

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