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MBTS fires six nurses

The Malawi Blood Transfusion Service (MBTS) last week fired six nurses for insubordination, but the nurses are seeking court redress on the matter.

Lawyer for the six, Mauya Msuku, described MBTS’ handling of the matter as ‘arrogant’, claiming that the National Organisation of Nurses and Midwives of Malawi (Nonm) had written MBTS to mediate over the issue before they went ahead to terminate the services of the staff.

Firing of MBTS nurses might threaten blood collection in the country
Firing of MBTS nurses might threaten blood collection in the country

In an interview on Thursday, Msuku who is also a board member of Nonm, said he had since sought court redress on behalf of the six.

“The six were fired last week for what MBTS referred to as ‘insubordination.’ The nurses had been pressing management for the provision of lunch of any kind whenever they are sent out to work in the field.

“To us, as a nurses’ body, we felt that the [employees] demands were genuine as the employer had an obligation to provide for that. If anything, MBTS provides lunch to part-time nurses temporarily hired to beef up staff. My clients never absconded from duty, but they just put their feet down until their concerns were addressed only to be given letters of termination of service,” he said.

Ngoma: Our lawyer is handling the case
Ngoma: Our lawyer is handling the case

He said he has since filed a case at the High Court in Blantyre and was waiting for the court to set dates for hearing.

But Public Relations Officer for MBTS Allen Kaombe in an interview on Friday maintained that the six were fired for breaching their conditions of service.

“People have to understand that these nurses were not fired for demanding allowances as it is being portrayed. In fact there were nine nurses who boycotted an MBTS activity and they were asked to write reports. Only three of them complied while the six insisted that the nurses organisation would do that on their behalf.

“What they were demanding was not in their conditions of service and sabotaging operations and refusing to write reports was tantamount to insubordination that is why they were fired,” he said.

However, Kaombe said MBTS has since beefed up its staff temporarily to cover the gap created by the dismissal of the six while awaiting recruitment of staff to replace the fired six.

He said while MBTS has been failing to reach its blood collection targets for the past few year, it is trying to ensure that its operations are not affected by the issue.

MBTS has an annual blood collection target of 80 000 units, but the highest amount the organisation has been able to collect so far is 55 000 units.

Some of the fired nurses who spoke to the Weekend Nation on condition of anonymity said the matter has been brewing for the past five years as they accused management of dilly-dallying in coming up with lasting solutions on the issue of out of station allowances.

One of the nurses said MBTS management was shooting itself in the foot as it would take months to train other nurses to carry out blood collection.

She said usually, the nurses are divided into teams of three each and each team is tasked to collect 50 pints of blood every working day which means that with the firing of the six MBTS will not be able to hit the target of 2 000 units of blood every month. The teams are tasked to visit a maximum of three institutions per day in order to collect blood.

In a separate interview, Nonm president Dorothy Ngoma on Wednesday confirmed to receiving reports of the firing of the six nurses, adding that their lawyer [Msuku] was handling the case.

But the development has irked health activist Maziko Matemba who demanded restraint from MBTS in how it is handling its staff to ensure that the effects of the labour dispute do not affect blood collections since blood is in high demand in all hospitals.

“The country’s heath facilities require regular supply of blood which mostly is supplied by MBTS. There is need for a sober approach by MBTS to ensure that the issue is sorted out amicably,” said Matemba.

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