The government signed a revised pay offer for public-sector doctors on Tuesday in the hope of ending weeks of picketing and strikes that saw at least 200 doctors fired.
The Public Health and Social Development Sectoral Bargaining Council said: ”The Department of Health tabled a new revised offer on June 24 2009 as requested by trade union parties to council. Since then, parties have been engaged in intensive negotiations that lasted until the early hours of the morning.
”The council is pleased to announced that the employer has presented a final and signed document. Labour will be taking the document to its constituency for ratification.”
The offer applies to doctors, dentists, pharmacists, pharmacist assistants and emergency medical staff, many of whom have been holding pickets over their delayed pay increases or have not reported for duty.
Earlier, Phophi Ramathuba, who has been part of the team negotiating for the Congress of South African Trade Unions-affiliated South African Medical Association’s (Sama) members, said: ”There is consensus among the unions on the offer, but as Sama we must get approval. It will be determined by our members.”
Ramathuba said there were some changes to the offer presented by government last week, but felt it was inappropriate to discuss them before members had been informed.
Sama spokesperson Norman Mabasa said there were ”sticky” areas that the government had agreed to make certain commitments on, particularly with groups of healthcare workers who were being very badly paid.
”It’s now left to the unions,” said Mabasa.
He said the mood of the negotiations — to address the poor pay of public-sector health through an ”occupation-specific dispensation” (OSD) — was robust, but not acrimonious.
The date of June 30 had been set aside by labour and government to agree on the implementation of the OSD — meant to address salary increases for public servants, according to experience and expertise.
By Monday, health was a key sector still left to agree on the pay package. In this sector, employees had been waiting since 2007 for their OSD increases.
On Monday more than 200 doctors were served with dismissal letters by the KwaZulu-Natal health department after they defied a Durban Labour Court interim interdict compelling them to return to work.
They were told by provincial health minister Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo earlier on Tuesday that they could reapply for the jobs, explain why they left their posts, and sign an undertaking not to do so again.
He also said the department would look overseas to fill vacant posts.
In the Free State, most state doctors seemed to be on duty, while the impact of the doctors’ strike in the Western Cape was being felt mostly at Groote Schuur Hospital. Pharmacists at the hospital had also joined the strike, with the outpatients’ pharmacy closed, but others were still providing medication.
In rural areas, hospitals in Worcester, Paarl and Vredenburg were feeling the impact with outpatients waiting in queues, and only emergency cases being attended to.
In the Eastern Cape, health minister Pumulo Masualle met striking doctors in Port Elizabeth, and in Mthatha, six Libode chiefs wanted to meet doctors to hear for themselves why they were striking, and hoped to persuade them to return to work.
”Everybody in our hospitals is suffering,” said Chief Mangliso Bokleni, of the Gibisela authority in the Libode area. — Sapa