HAITU members to join health workers' strike on Monday
The Health and Allied Workers Indaba Trade Union (HAITU), which represents some 20 000 health workers, will be joining the strike by public sector workers.
HAITU members will down tools from Monday.
The union says its members are fed up with government’s response to workers’ demands which were tabled in the Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council.
"Government - the employer - has been showing workers the middle finger, by denying them a meaningful increase, and by disregarding and disrespecting the bargaining council. Health workers have been suffering for years and this government refuses to take any responsibility for the crisis we are facing in the healthcare sector," says HAITU general-secretary Lerato Mthunzi.
"In the new round of wage talks, which opened in February this year, the bosses offered a pathetic 3% increase, which they unilaterally implemented."
Mthunzi says HAITU members are also demanding a 10% wage hike.
"What we are demanding is very small when you consider how the bosses have blatantly robbed workers of their increases in the last two years.
"Health workers are working under enormous pressure - we must deliver quality healthcare in public hospitals which are literally crumbling because of poor infrastructure, caused by poor maintenance.
"On top of that, we frequently run out of basic materials like medicine, bandages, food, and clean bedding.
"The conditions have been made even worse by frequent loadshedding and water cuts, and these have a direct impact on quality patient care.
"This is why we condemn the comments made by minister of Health, Joe Phaahla, and all those who have the nerve to blame workers for the inconvenience of the strike.
"We also reject the false narrative in the media that the public sector is bloated - that is not true."
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