Health Ministry Bows To Workers' Demands
Date
9/12/2023 2:13:09 PM
(MENAFN- The Post)
THE Ministry of health says it will review the hardship allowance given to workers in the remote districts of Lesotho.
The decision comes a week after the health workers downed tools to press the government to review the allowance.
THE Ministry of Health says it will review the hardship allowance given to workers in the remote districts of Lesotho.
The decision comes a week after the health workers downed tools to press the government to review the allowance.
In a memo this week, the Health Ministry said it has requested the Public Service Ministry to review the hardship allowance for workers in the mountainand foothill regions.
“We are currently waiting for a response to the request made,” the memo reads.
“The staff will get feedback of their request as soon as the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Employment has responded,” it reads.
The decision to review the allowance comes after the Ministry of Health held fruitful talks with representatives of the Lesotho Nursing Association and the Lesotho Workers Association (LEWA), which offers trade union services to civil servants.
Under Lesotho's Public Service Act, all government employees are not allowed to join trade unions.
The workers were demanding a review of their hardship allowance from M275 to M5 000 a month. They said the allowance was last reviewed in the late 1970s.
The total shutdown of all health services in the mountainregions of Mokhotlong, Thaba-Tseka, and Qacha's Nek began last Friday.
Health workers in these regions told Minister Selibe Mochoboroane in a letter last Wednesday that they had downed tools because their grievances had been ignored.
The workers, including health professionals such as doctors and nurses, said they would only attend to“seriemergencies”.
The workers went on a“go slow” some three weeks ago to press the government to attend to their grievances. The government did not act on their threats to down tools, which led to a step up in the protest action last week.
The workers accused the ministry of being“mute from the first time we were writing”.
They said to get a swift response, they had resorted to a go-slow but all was in vain.
They said since the authorities had“refused to negotiate in good faith” regarding their demands for a review of the hardship allowance they were going for a total shutdown.
They said they would remain on shutdown until an agreement was reached.
But in a major climb-down this week, the ministry said it had made“a special request to the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Employment to revise the hardship allowance rates”.
The ministry has also recognised that the Mokhotlong district staff's welfare“is at risk due to the fact that most of their staff members are not even drawing hardship allowances, no increments and retention allowances to their district”.
“Their concerns are of most importance and will be addressed accordingly,” the memo reads.
The ministry appealed to the staff to continue with their daily duties as usual.
“The staff members appreciated all the initiatives the ministry management has taken,” the memo reads.
“As a result they will do their work as expected.”
Mpolai Makhetha
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