The Sunday News
IF ever there were any workers in the civil service still in doubt that the new Government is keen to address their plight and meet its side of the bargain, those doubts were put to rest last week.
This was after Government released a windfall to workers in the health sector — mostly nurses — who received about $5 000 each in outstanding allowances. President Mnangagwa is on record saying the plight of workers is important, and workers need to be remunerated accordingly, promising further improvements once the economy performs better.
The windfall to health workers should have been testimony to fellow civil servants that what President Mnangagwa and his Government promise is delivered.
The same also applies to the general population, which should realise that the new Government does not make false promises.
The Ministry of Health and Child Care permanent secretary Retired Major General Dr Gerald Gwinji said Government had paid what it owed the nurses.
“The amounts reflected in some of our nurses’ personal accounts are not at all out of order. A lot of our nurses were wrongly assimilated when Government rationalised the Civil Service between 2008 and 2009.
“Most were placed in grades below where they should have been resulting in their being prejudiced of the correct level of remuneration including allowances like housing and transport from 2010 until early this year.
So cumulatively they were owed money by Government.”
Dr Gwinji said nurses who retired or resigned recently after having served during the period, were likely to get the money as well.
“It’s only technically sound to address the issue of retired nurses who were working during the period and Government may pay them as well.
“With the finalisation of this corrective exercise SSB has begun a phased approach to pay off these accumulated shortfalls, for some running into several thousand dollars given the time under prejudice,” said Dr Gwinji.
An official at a hospital said nurses working in the rural areas got significantly more than their urban based counterparts mainly due to their on-call allowances.
The allowances had been outstanding since 2010. President Mnangagwa is also on record saying his Government will be amending labour laws in order to protect workers from being abused.
“We must also protect our workers and ensure that they cannot be taken advantage of. That is why the Government is developing a raft of labour law reforms as part of our commitment to creating a safe and enabling environment for workers.”
