Africa-Press – Mozambique. The Mozambican Health Ministry has said that there is nothing that justifies the strike threatened by the Association of United Mozambican Health Professionals (APSUSM).
APSUSM has threatened to resume its national strike as a result of lack of understanding with the government at the negotiating table. Last week, the APSUSM spokesperson, Rosana Zunguze, told reporters that the strike is resuming due to the failure of the government to honour several promises, including the promotion of health professionals and the payment of overtime pay in arrears.
But the Health Ministry has decided to call the union’s bluff. A weekend press release from the Ministry, cited by the independent daily “O Pais” said that, if the strike did go ahead, it would guarantee health care for the public.
In other words, the Ministry does not believed that most health workers will obey APSUSM’s call for a strike.
The Ministry said that the strike threat has come as negotiations are still under way between the associations representing health workers, and a multi-sector commission set up by the government.
The issue now under discussion is whether health workers should be obliged to pay union dues to APSUSM.
APSUSM has demanded that the Health Ministry deduct one per cent in union membership fees from the monthly wages of all health workers (except doctors and dentists, whom APSUSM does not claim to represent) and channel the money to the APSUSM bank account.
This would be entirely illegal, since the payment of union fees is voluntary, and the money cannot simply be taken from the workers’ wages without their consent.
“Any discount from wages, not covered by the legislation in force, requires the consent of the worker, through a declaration recognized by a notary”, said the Ministry’s release.
In other words, APSUSM most mobilise each and every one of its members to request individually that the union dues should be deducted from their wages. This would put to the test APSUSM’s claim to represent tens of thousands of health workers.
The Ministry stressed that there is no reason for a strike, and that dialogue should continue to solve the challenges facing the health service.
It hoped that professionalism and the spirit of dialogue will prevail. But if the strike does go ahead, the Ministry warned, it will ensure that the public is not deprived of health services.
A quite separate dispute is brewing in Maputo Central Hospital (HCM), where doctors are threatening to halt all activities not covered by their normal working timetable. If they carry out this threat, the doctors in the country’s largest health unit will not carry out any emergency shift work, or work at the weekends of public holidays.
In a document sent to the HCM general management, the doctors complain that they are physically, emotionally and financially worn out, and say they have not been paid for their extra work for more than 12 months.
They are threatening that, as from Wednesday, they will not undertake any emergency shift or other activities not on their normal timetable until they have been paid.
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