Zimpapers Logo

Farirai Machivenyika-Senior Reporter 

Health services are critical and a basic public health good cannot be withdrawn from ordinary people because of labour disputes, Vice President and Health and Child Care Minister Constantino Chiwenga told Parliament when giving reasons for the Health Services Amendment Bill on Tuesday.

The Bill seeks to amend the Health Services Act and among its provisions it will bar health workers from withdrawing labour for more than 72 hours in a week, but in return there are provisions for compulsory arbitration when Government and health workers are at loggerheads and negotiations are not succeeding.

Being out of the country on official business in Indonesia, VP Chiwenga had the Leader of the House and Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Ziyambi Ziyambi present his speech for the second reading of the Bill. 

The Second Reading is when the responsible minister for a particular Bill outlines the reasons for the new legislation.

The VP said the public health service has for long been affected by strikes, walk outs and refusal of service by public health workers who in many cases were misled by union representatives who promised that they could achieve the impossible to compel Government to give them conditions that were beyond its capacity.

“We as Government highly value our public health service workers but they are not the only public service workers we have to care for,” he said. 

“They, like other workers in the public sector, are entitled to decent working conditions and Government will never stop hearing their reasonable grievances about their material well-being but we must balance the aspiration with the reality that in any state, the delivery of affordable public health service is a basic public health good that cannot be withdrawn from our people because of a labour dispute.” 

VP Chiwenga said there was a limit beyond which Government could tax the already financially burdened people to pay for health services. 

The present fiscal discipline of the Government demands that all recurrent expenditure and a large slice of capital spending must come out of tax revenue, and even borrowing to buy assets is only permitted when there is immediate income arising from that asset that can service any debt.

“We are not yet a high middle-income country but our training facilities for health service workers are very good and they are frequently sought after by other countries.

“Accordingly, the Bill will declare that health service to be an essential service. This means that the service cannot be withdrawn by ordinary methods of industrial action. 

“Instead Madam Speaker, negotiations must be undertaken leading to compulsory arbitration if there is a deadlock between the parties. 

“At most withdrawal of services during collective job action cannot exceed 72 hours in any week,” he said.

He added that Clause 5 of the Bill made it clear that the calling of a health service worker was not simply a job but a vocation to help, heal and save lives of our people and they had an obligation to professionally care for patients.

The Vice President said health service workers who breach these fundamental obligations will face professional disciplinary proceedings.