Lesotho- Queen 'Mamohato nurses down tools

(MENAFN- The Post) MASERU -LESOTHO'S battle against the COVID-19 pandemic received a major knock this week after nurses at Queen 'Mamohato Memorial Hospital, also known as Tšepong, downed tools on Monday.
The strike action by nurses comes at a time when Lesotho is battling a deadly second wave of the pandemic that has shown no sign of easing up.

The Lesotho Nurses Association (LNA) Secretary General, Malefane Tlali, said the protest will continue until the nurses' grievances have been addressed.
At the centre of the dispute is the issue of salaries.
Tlali said the nurses have been receiving a raw deal because Tšepong has not implemented the Public Private Partnership (PPP) agreement.
As a result, nurses at Tšepong were receiving lower salaries than their counterparts working at government-owned and church-run health institutions.

thepost could not establish how much the nurses are earning per month.
Tlali said the nurses have written letters expressing their discontent to the government but nothing has come through.
They accused the government of 'playing tricks' with them.
Tlali said the nurses are demanding that they receive the same salaries as their counterparts working at government hospitals.
He said some nurses were even getting half of what nurses at some government clinics earn.

But what appears to have angered the nurses more was the decision by the government for Tšepong to take in Covid-19 patients.
'They are not being paid enough yet they are given this heavy burden,' Tlali said.
He said temporary government nurses were earning much higher salaries but Tšepong nurses were still being required to train them as their system was complex and needed special expertise.
He said they had since passed their grievances to parliament's social cluster committee which has promised to get back to them by tomorrow.

The parliamentary social cluster chairman, Fako Moshoeshoe, said they have been meeting the government and the Tšepong management to thrash out a solution.
'We are meeting on Thursday and we will get back to Basotho on Friday,' Moshoeshoe said.
On the other hand, the Lesotho Workers Association (LEWA) spokesman, Hlalefang Seoaholimo, told thepost that the nurses were now treating Covid-19 patients but still earn very little.

'They complain that temporary nurses earn more than them yet they are the ones who teach them the job,' he said.
Seoaholimo said the nurses are asking for a salary review that will be more than what civil servants earn.
'They are tired of being undermined by the Ministry of Health,' he said.
He argued that the hospital has fuelled the nurses' anger as they said they will not answer any of the grievances as the arrangement to deploy government temporary nurses was done by the government.

'It was then when the nurses decided to withdraw their (labour),' he said.
Seoaholimo said Tšepong is expected to pay its nurses more than the government pays theirs.
But since it was launched, they have never paid those nurses as they should according to the PPP agreement.

He said there is no will on the government's side to ensure that the nurses earn enough salaries.
He said the LNA even wrote to the government but never received a positive response.
Seoaholimo said the salary structure issue is based on the government's compliance with the PPP agreement that requires them to pay the workers.

NKheli Liphoto

MENAFN09022021000229011070ID1101573507