NEHAWU calls for better service
The National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union (Nehawu) in Limpopo handed a memorandum with at least 42 demands to Rob Tooley, MEC for Treasury and Acting Premier on Friday.
POLOKWANE – This was done during the union’s Provincial Day of Action march to the Office of the Premier.
The march was attended by thousands of workers from the five districts in the province and included workers at state-owned entities.
Read more: NEHAWU march to the Office of the Premier
“The march formed part of a national public service delivery campaign mandated by the Nehawu Central Executive Committee to fight corruption and maladministration,” Nehawu National Spokesperson, Khaya Xaba, said, adding the provincial administration has subjected workers to unfair labour practises, discrimination, victimisation and exploitation in many forms.
“The province ranks among the highest in terms of unemployment among the youth and all other age groups through a moratorium on filling vacancies, protracted fixed term contract work, outsourcing of services and the abusive and exploitative use of programmes such as internships, EPWP and learnerships which have been converted into modern-day slavery and forms of cheap labour.”
You might also want to read: Nehawu to embark on rolling mass action next week in Polokwane
Xaba said many of the issues raised in a memorandum of demands handed over in 2016 to date remained unresolved and, on some, there was progress, but slow. He said especially all the genuine issues and challenges with regard to the Department of Health have been ignored even though these issues were constantly raised by the union with the highest office in the province.
The aim of the march was to deliver a memorandum of demands in relation to the crisis currently engulfing all departments across provincial government, especially the Department of Health.
Some of the demands to address:
• Collapse of the public healthcare system in the province.
• Non-payment of overtime.
• Grade progression for all health professionals.
• Consistent translation of nurses who acquired post-graduate qualification with back pay.
• Absorption of community health workers as full time employees of the department.
The memorandum addressed issues such as alleged corruption at the University of Venda requiring a forensic investigation, attacks and robberies at various health facilities by criminals leading to the withdrawal of staff at night time, the amount of money spent in the public health system not delivering the desired results, lack of leadership in health facilities, shortage of personnel, infrastructure challenges at facilities, expired medicine and rotten food, the long waiting period of patients for assistance, poor filing systems and delayed payments of performance bonuses over the last two financial years.
The scrapping of austerity measures as per Treasury note 7 of 2016, rental arrears and insourcing of outsourced services were among the concerns raised. The memorandum also addressed issues at various other departments such as Agriculture, Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs, Education and Social Development.
Nehawu demanded a response to these demands within a period of seven days from receipt thereof.
