Public-sector doctors unhappy with the government’s problematic roll-out of the occupationspecific dispensation (OSD) have threatened to work to rule.
But if they go ahead some will be embarking on illegal action. Some doctors have still not been paid their OSD, while others have either been underpaid or overpaid.
Work to rule means that workers perform only the minimum required by their contracts. ‘We’re not going to go beyond the call of duty,” Lebogang Phahladira, a spokesperson for the dissatisfied doctors, told the Mail & Guardian.
‘From April 1 we’re going to withdraw from overtime. We’ll come to work at eight and leave at 4.30pm. There won’t be doctors [on duty] at night.” Phahladira, a member of the national executive committee of the Public Sector Doctors’ Group within the South African Medical Association (Sama), said this type of action would not be illegal because doctors are not obliged to commit to overtime.
But, depending on the details of each doctor’s contract, a go-slow or overtime ban could constitute an illegal strike, Dr Afzal Mosam told the M&G. Mosam is chairperson of the Essential Services Committee, a statutory body established under the Labour Relations Act, the members of which are appointed by Nedlac in consultation with the labour minister.
The committee is responsible for designating essential services and ratifying service-level agreements. Mosam denied that doctors had no other way to express their dissatisfaction with the health department.
‘The workers’ alternative is to refer the matter to interest arbitration,” he said. Interest arbitration would be conducted by the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration. ‘Instead of holding a strike, both parties could present their evidence before an independent third party,” Mosam said.
At present those providing health-related services — from physicians to pharmacists, porters and pestcontrol workers — are deemed essential by the Labour Relations Act. This means that no one in the health sector is, under any circumstances, allowed to strike.
Sama chairperson Dr Norman Mabasa brushed off suggestions that services would be disrupted, saying the organisation had not heard any reports of a go-slow at hospitals. He maintained that the public-sector doctors who remain unhappy with the OSD roll-out constitute only a small part of the organisation and are acting without the mandate of the executive.
‘We understand their anger and agree with all the reasons they’ve given but we differ on what to do now,” he said. Sama had not exhausted its options and would continue to work with government to iron out problems with the OSD, Mabasa said.
Negotiating a minimum service-level agreement with the state is ‘a priority”, he said. A minimum service-level agreement for health professionals would allow employees to take certain types of strike action while maintaining critical services.
‘If we have a problem, we need to have a fall-back agreement. We don’t want to have our hands tied — The right to strike exists generally. Doctors also need to have that right,” Mabasa said.
There has been a growing call, particularly from junior doctors, to get the state to agree to a minimum service level. ‘Previously it was off the agenda altogether but now people are talking about it all the time,” said Zameer Brey, vice-chairperson of the Junior Doctors’ Association.
Brey said that although doctors are aware that they will never have the full right to strike ‘there needs to be some mechanism for us to vent our frustration”.
Trade unions representing workers in essential services have been negotiating with the Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council since 2007 for a minimum servicelevel agreement.
Members of the medical profession are indirectly involved in the discussions through links with trade unions such as the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union and the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (Denosa).
Talks are ‘at an advanced stage”, Modise Letsatsi, Denosa’s chief negotiator, told the M&G. But there is still disagreement over fundamentals such as what ratios must be maintained between striking and working members during a strike.