Private and public sector doctors will stage countrywide protests on Friday to voice concern over low wages and pricing regulations.
Doctors will march to the Health Department’s offices in Pretoria and Bisho in the Eastern Cape and to the city hall in Durban.
Their concerns include delays in the implementation of the occupation specific dispensation (OSD), a revised salary structure.
The doctors are objecting to poor public sector salaries and a reference price list, which determines what private sector doctors should charge.
The South African Medical Association (Sama), which is organising the march, is hoping that salaries would be raised by at least 50% through the introduction of the OSD, which aimed to address poor public sector salaries and working conditions.
But the Health Department has rejected this figure as arbitrary.
The Business Day newspaper reported on Friday that bus drivers were now earning more than junior doctors, following a wage agreement between Metrobus and the South African Municipal Workers’ Union.
According to the agreement, bus drivers with more than three years’ experience were now earning R8 800 a month, compared to junior doctors, who earn R8 000 after six years of study. — Sapa