Temporarily suspend strike
The Association of Nurses and Midwives in Uganda has opted to give the government a benefit of doubt by temporarily calling off a spirited strike until June 16, 2022.
The decision comes shortly after the government threatened to fire all striking health workers for engaging in an illegal practice contrary to section 8, subsection 3 a and b of the Public Service negotiating, consultation and disputes settlement act.
Public service Minister Muruli Mukasa, in a statement on Friday ordered Uganda Nurses and Midwives Association(UNMA)and Allied Health Workers to halt their separate strikes and return to work or be fired.
Now, UNMA seems to have bowed to pressure and called off their strike. However, Dr. Justus Cherop, the UNMA president, says the process is temporary until the government fulfills its part of the bargain.
Temporarily suspend strike
He says according to the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) of 2018, the government committed to pay certificate holders Shs 1.3m,Diploma holders Shs 3m and Degree holders Shs4.8m.
Cherop explains to this website that the temporal lifting of the strike has nothing to do with the fact that the government threatened to fire all health workers involved in industrial action but a commitment from the Public Service to address their matter.
“The commitment letter says that we have been covered in the budget and that’s why we have suspended our strike until June 16, 2022 to see the budget first before we resume the strike.The Minister of Public Service wrote to us stating that our increment is based on the negotiation of 2018. We were told that we have been considered in the 400 b set aside for scientists.” He says
Cherop however hastened to say that should the outcome be negative, they will not hesitate to strike again.
“We also had engagement meetings with the Ministry of Health and got an assurance that the 400 b has been appropriated as bargained for all scientists. So we said since June 16, the day of reading the budget is not far, we will suspend it but after reading the budget we should know how much has been provided.” says CheropUganda has about 70,167 nurses and midwives registered with the Uganda Nurses and Midwives Council operating across 139 general hospitals and 14 Regional Referral Hospitals.
