Written by Umamah Bakharia 

Doctors, nurses and other health sector workers in Zimbabwe have told the government that they’ll go on strike today in protest against poor working conditions and remuneration.

Reports suggest that healthcare workers’ remuneration is so poor that most healthcare workers can no longer afford the service they provide. 

In a discussion with Radio Islam International, the president of Zimbabwe’s Professional Nurses Union, Mr Robert Chiduku says doctors and nurses are struggling to survive due to low wages. 

“We demand that our salaries be paid in US dollars because the government itself is charging for services in US dollars which we find to be unfair and unjustifiable,” says Chiduku. Healthcare workers are also demanding the reopening of the negotiation forum and the regrading by the health services board.

“There [is currently] no difference between a junior and a senior, someone who is more educated than the other so we want them to be graded by the board,” says Chiduku.

The health care workers are also demanding that their donor retention be paid allowances, “because as of right now we are on the verge of a nursing labour recession,” says Chiduku.

He says that nurses are leaving the country due to the low pay and working conditions.

Currently, the minimum Zimbabwean doctors are paid is 30 000 Zimbabwean dollars, approximately $93 USD.

“This [amount] does not sustain them especially if you rank the value of the Zimbabwean dollar against the US dollar,” says Chiduku.