Doctors in Eswatini health facilities have engaged in Industrial Action

A Doctor at the workplace (image sourced online)

Written by Fundizwi Sikhondze

On Monday 01 July 2024 around a reported three hundred (300) doctors who work in Eswatini public health facilities engaged in a work-to-rule industrial action to force the government to honour their standby and on call allowances were reported to have been accumulated between the months of October 2023 and March 2024. The on call and stand by allowances are paid every six months.

The doctors’ work to rule industrial action entails them not working beyond the normal daytime working hours and not attending emergencies after hours.

The doctors had given the government until the end of June 2024 to honour the on call and and standby allowance claims and when it was confirmed that by the weekend of the 29^th June the claims had not been honoured by the government the doctors to confirmed that they would go ahead with the action starting on Monday July 1^st.

The Times of Eswatini (TOE) on Tuesday 02 July reported that the action was a resounding success on Monday evening as doctors adhered to their resolution to stay away from public hospitals. Only nurses were found attending to patients by the TOE journalists who toured medical facilities. The Oncall Committee Chairperson Dr Zabenguni Mkhatshwa was reported to have stated categorically that the industrial action would continue until the on call and stand by allowances were paid in full by the government.

The doctors industrial action has serious consequences to the lives of ordinary citizens who get their health service from the public health institutions but who may experience medical emergencies that may required the attention of doctors and might not get any doctor at the health facilities because of the industrial action. There is therefore a real danger of preventable fatalities occurring because of this industrial action if the government does not move swiftly to honour the payments with immediate effect.

(Update on the article above is that the matter was settled when doctors got their pay from the 2nd July 2024.)

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