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Nurses in Zimbabwe are continuing their strike over pay, on the day the government is starting to rehire nurses after it sacked more than 14,000 for going on strike.
The nurses went on strike on Monday to press demands for the payment of allowances and to protest about new pay grades.
A spokesman for President Emmerson Mnangagwa said the government was recruiting unemployed nurses and recalling retired nurses below the age of 70 who were willing to work.
He said nurses who were sacked could apply for the posts as new employees.
But Enock Dongo, secretary-general of the Zimbabwe Nursing Association, told the BBC this just wasn’t viable.
He said the sackings violated the country’s labour laws and so the strike was still on.
We reported yesterday that Zimbabwe’s Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga said that striking workers had refused to return to work despite their outstanding allowances being paid.
But Mr Dongo told the BBC that the nurses had not received any of their demands and all the government had promised is money they already owed in back pay.
Correspondents say a presidential election is just months away and some Zimbabweans see the government’s hardball tactics as a risky move that could alienate voters.
By: bbc.com
