RFM NURSES PUT STRIKE ON HOLD

MANZINI – When the intention is not to cause trouble but to get what is rightfully yours, compromise is easily attainable.

This proved to be the case with Raleigh Fitkin Memorial (RFM) Hospital employees, who continued work as usual although they had planned to down their tools yesterday. This followed a meeting that the employees’ representatives had with the institution’s management in the morning.

On Monday, the hospital’s nurses had vowed to down their tools after they failed to reach consensus with the institution’s management on salary payments that were due on the same day. The initial plan was that they would not return to work until their grievances were resolved.

 This decision came about after the employees’ expectations to get paid the previous week; April 18, 2018, just like their counterparts working at government hospitals.
According to sources, some determined nurses did not report to their work stations in the morning when they got to work, but they stood outside the hospital building with placards ready for action.

Their zest for protesting was allegedly doused by the fact that some of their colleagues continued with work. This, according to the sources, instilled fear in the aggrieved nurses. As a result, they convened a meeting with the hospital management and the outcome was that they should return to work.

According to the Nurses Unit Committee Chairperson Similo Simelane, the management promised that their salaries would be paid by midnight tomorrow.   
Similo said for this reason, and that their consultations revealed that if they undertook the strike action, it would backfire because it would have been illegal since the right procedure for engaging in a lawful protest action was not observed.

The nurses’ concern was that the payment delays would land them in trouble with some institutions that they owed money.
In this regard, Similo said management invited the nurses to engage the institution’s human resources department, to arrange how the matter would be tackled. In the afternoon, the nurses convened at the hospital premises to discuss a way forward.

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