Return to work, union tells nurses

THE Zambia Union of Nurses Organisation (ZUNO) has called on striking nurses to return to work, as the union and Government have started negotiations for the 2014 improved salaries and conditions of service.
And Labour and Social Security Minister Fackson Shamenda has said the ongoing strike by nurses and midwives at the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) and Livingstone General Hospital is illegal.
ZUNO general secretary Liseli Sitali disclosed in a statement that the continued strike was likely to jeopardise the ongoing bargaining process, hence the need for the nurses to call off their strike action and allow the bargaining process to take effect.
He said the union and Government had intensified the negotiations and that demands submitted by the nurses and midwives through various branch and provincial structures would also be taken into consideration.
Mr Sitali said Government and the union were working tirelessly to conclude the negotiations and adequately address the nurses’demands.
Mr Shamenda, who met leaders of the four health sector unions at Parliament Building on Tuesday night, said the ongoing strike was illegal and should be called off.
The four unions represented at the meeting include the Zambia National Union of Health and Allied Workers (ZNUHAW), ZUNO, Health Workers Union of Zambia (HWUZ) and Civil Servants and Allied Workers Union of Zambia (CSAWUZ).

SOURCE: Times of Zambia