The Coalition is fully supportive of the healthcare workers withdrawal of their labour because they have, in the past held prolonged negotiations with the stubborn government in demanding decent remuneration and an improvement in working conditions. The demonstrations also came after the government slashed their June salaries by $2 000 per worker. We are disappointed that the healthcare workers have not been getting decent wages and their income is not in tandem with the soaring inflation and high cost of living.
In this light, we take note of the intervention by the government of Zimbabwe on Wednesday afternoon by introducing a US$75 Covid-19 allowance for all civil servants while their monthly salaries have been increased by 50%.
We also support the decision by the healthcare workers in rejecting the Covid-19 allowances and demanding that the salaries revert back to the 1st of October 2018 digits that were quoted in USD which is a stable currency that cab store value on that salary.
We therefore urge, the Health Services Board to immediately act to avert this unnecessary strike by presenting a new serious offer to the healthcare workers.
Thus, we are calling on society and all the progressive forces to support this strike and calling on the Health Services Board to go back to the negotiating table with a settlement offer.
As CiZC, we have noted in the past with concern that the government of Zimbabwe government is unwilling to accede to these demands without waging a savage anti-worker campaign of intimidation, arrests and without unleashing the barbarism of police violence on workers.
We value human life and would not want the strike to lead to unnecessary loss of lives hence the need to resolve the underlying issues urgently.
More importantly, we take this opportunity to call on the government of Zimbabwe to seriously address the rampant corruption that has caused devastating effects on the country’s economy. The government of Zimbabwe should, therefore, urgently call for an all stakeholders dialogue as a way of unlocking the multi-faceted socio-economic and political crisis facing Zimbabwe.
The national dialogue the process should seek to safeguard citizens’ interests through the restoration of the social contract between citizens and the government.
This national dialogue process must not be restricted to political parties but should rather bring on board a cross-section of stakeholders including civic society, labour, religious groups, business among other critical stakeholders. Its main focus should be premised on a set of agreed reforms to the economy, social and political governance.
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