Mozambican government says 60,000 health workers have already been reinstated

Mozambique’s Minister of Health assured this Monday that 60,000 professionals in the sector have already been reinstated and that the issue of overtime pay for workers striking during the week is being resolved.

“Improving working conditions is not just a phase, it is a dynamic process and we think the government is gradually coming up with solutions to the problems,” Armindo Thiago told reporters in Maputo about the ongoing strike in the sector.

This is a continuation of the strike confirmed this Monday by the Association of United and Solidarized Medical Workers of Mozambique (APSUSM), demanding better working conditions and the availability of hospital supplies.

To meet the demands of striking professionals, Armindo Tiago said the government has created a multidisciplinary team to dialogue with the class.

“Most issues are being resolved gradually. About 60 thousand medical workers have been retrained, the situation with the payment of missing subsidies has been resolved and is now being approved by the Main Finance Inspectorate, after which overtime will be paid,” he said. he added.

The health minister also said that the executive branch is paying shift allowances “gradually” due to the large number of specialists involved, suggesting that “there will be mistakes that will be gradually corrected.”

He clarified that complaints from medical workers about improving working conditions are also under consideration.

“We are rehabilitating health facilities such as Xai Xai Provincial Hospital (…), Mavalane General Hospital and Jose Makamo General Hospital. We are building new medical facilities. For us, the process of improving working conditions is continuous,” he concluded.

Health workers in Mozambique announced today they will continue to strike due to a lack of consensus with the government, which they accuse of “moral persecution and intimidation” and refusal to pay full overtime pay.

“Our strike will continue until the government implements what has been agreed upon,” said APSUSM President Anselmo Mujave.

More than 50,000 health workers have joined the strike that began on April 29, the president of the Association of United and Solidarity Health Workers of Mozambique said, noting that negotiations with the government were ongoing.

Mozambique’s Ministry of Health said the same day that there was “no reason” to resume the strike and assured that it would “ensure the continuity of health services to the population.”

The resumption of the strike was planned for March 28, but it was suspended a day earlier after negotiations with the Mozambican government culminated in the implementation of some demands, such as the qualification of health workers, monitoring visits to hospital departments and the resolution of irregularities in the payment of subsidies, it said at the time. APSUSM.

Nearly 30 days after the strike was suspended, Mozambican health workers once again complained of non-compliance with government demands and a failure to conduct monitoring visits to agreements between the parties, saying hospitals were “worse than when the dialogue began.” “.

Among other things, APSUSM requires the government to provide hospitals with medicines that patients in some cases have to purchase, purchase hospital beds, address the problem of “food shortages,” as well as medical equipment for emergency ambulances. single-use materials and personal protective equipment, shortages of which “force employees to purchase them out of their own pockets.”