Listen to advice, nurses urged

By ARTHUR MWANSA
THE Zambia Union of Nurses Organisation (ZUNO) has warned that disregarding advice from union leaders will expose employees to disciplinary action like dismissals when there are employment disputes.
ZUNO research and information officer Mabvuto Zulu said this in an interview on Wednesday in reaction to recent appeals by the Zambia Resident Doctors Association (ZRDA) that nurses should dialogue with government whenever they are aggrieved to avoid dismissals in future.
Last year, Government fired over 500 nurses, countrywide for participating in a protracted strike action over a wage dispute, the action government deemed as illegal.
The nurses were pressing Government to harmonise their salaries and increase the wages to K10, 000 per month, among other conditions of service.
However, during the same period Government announced the recruitment of 305 registered nurses following the dismissal of the 594.
The research officer said “The dismissal of nurses last year is a lesson not only to the medical professionals but to the entire civil service. The blatant disregard for authorities can result in severe consequences. Dialogue should take centre stage in any dispute”.
Mr Zulu said it is unfortunate that while his organisation was still on the negotiating table with Government members (nurses) decided to take the law into their own hands by going on an illegal strike.
He said disregarding authority is more likely to expose workers to disciplinary action like suspensions and dismissals, actions which might result in one losing a sense of belonging and probably leading to depression.