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Auxilia Katongomara Chronicle Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Nurses Association (Zina) has expressed concern over delays in rectifying anomalies in nurses’ on-call and night duty allowances.

The nurses, who downed tools in April before resuming duty after promises that the issue would be addressed by the end of June, are also calling for an urgent review of their grading system.

Nurses were not happy that they were getting $3 on-call and night duty allowances while senior Ministry of Health and Child Care officials were pocketing $403 a month.

The Health Services Board in April agreed to raise payments for nurses from US$3 to between US$50 and US$70 a month.

Zina secretary general, Mugove Chipfurutse yesterday said they had been waiting in vain for the matter to be resolved.

“We don’t even know the government’s position. These people are playing with us. Can they ensure that they fulfil their promises before we decide to take action? What we know is that the money has been saved, when we met with the Health Services Board we saw a letter from Treasury that everyone would be paid,” he said .

Chipfurutse said his association was planning to meet the Health Services Board tomorrow over the matter. “We’ve also been patiently waiting for the review of the grading system since 2010 and it’s overdue. We don’t want to strike again,” he said.

Health and Child Care Minister Dr David Parirenyatwa told The Chronicle that the nurses’ allowances were being processed.

“I’m expecting that they’re being processed because certain allowances for senior officials had been stopped for the sake of the nurses. I’m expecting that they’ll be getting their allowances,” he said.

Dr Parirenyatwa said the nurses could only get their allowances once they complete the required forms.

“In principle everything has been approved but the allowances can only be processed once one has filled in forms,” added the minister.

In May, it was established that Health and Child Care permanent secretary, Dr Gerald Gwinji and 493 other high ranking officials in the ministry and related administrative institutions countrywide, benefitted the most from the $1,5 million released by Treasury for health workers’ allowances.

Although it could not be established exactly how much Dr Gwinji was receiving, other senior officials were being paid up to $403 per month, compared to $3 paid to nurses.

Nurses argued that the top officials do not work at night and were not entitled to the money.