Barely hours after health workers in the Christian Health Association of Malawi (Cham) institutions downed tools to force the Treasury to address medical workers’ perks, government has agreed to make a K1 billion settlement in arrears and immediately effect a new remuneration structure for Cham staff so that they are at par with their colleagues in the mainstream civil service.
The staff downed their tools on Thursday morning and later the National Organisation of Nurses and Midwives Association of Malawi (Nonm) issued a seven-day ultimatum to government to quickly address concerns of the workers, chief among them, disparities in salaries with public service counterparts.
Addressing a news briefing at Cham secretariat in Lilongwe on Friday, chairperson of the board Father Peter Mulomole pleaded with the staff to return to work following the development.
He said government assured the Cham board that a payment voucher was being processed for the amounts claimed.
Asked if government is going to meet all Cham workers demands which include arrears and salary disparities, Mulomole said: “Everything. They have promised to meet all the demands.
“The minister indicated that she is monitoring the transaction of the payments and promised to ensure that they are processed expeditiously. The latest information we have received is that the payment is at voucher stage.”
He pleaded with the health workers to ensure that no life is lost by immediately returning to work, saying while Cham respects labour laws and that the workers have an obligation to live up to their Christian creed and Jesus Christ’s values.
Said Mulomole: “Cham appreciates the prevailing financial hardships of the staff, especially those in hard-to-reach areas. Cham also appreciates the plight of the poor people who depend on our services.”
He confirmed that Treasury will release over K1billion released for the exercise.
Cham executive director Dr. Mwai Makoka, while distancing the organisation from the industrial action announced at a news briefing held jointly organised by Nonm and some Cham staff, said secretariat management was not notified of the action.
He said the board and the secretariat did all in its powers to avert the strike.
“The workers started agitating for a strike as early as October last year when the increment for civil servants was announced but we begged and pleaded with them to be patient.
“Meanwhile, we lobbied with government and engaged it several times to avert this strike,” said Makoka.
Ministry of Health spokesperson Henry Chimbali, who was present at the Cham news briefing as an observer, briefly confirmed government’s position.
“It’s true we met and discussed the communication from Treasury that we are going to meet their demands,” said Chimbali.
Cham facilities constitute over 40 percent of health delivery services in the country and have a presence in some remote parts of the country where public health institutions are mostly unavailable; hence, the workers’ strike threatened to disrupt the country’s health service delivery.
In 2001, following challenges in public institutions amid a massive brain drain of workers, government and Cham signed a memorandum of understanding allowing government to be paying salaries of health workers in Cham institutions to ensure that the cost of running Cham institutions was not being recouped through exorbitant user fees.
