US embassy cable - 03HARARE2146

UNCLAS HARARE 002146 
 
SIPDIS 
 
NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR J. FRAZER 
LONDON FOR C. GURNEY 
PARIS FOR C. NEARY 
NAIROBI FOR T. PFLAUMER 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON, ELAB, PGOV, ZI 
SUBJECT: HEALTHCARE STRIKES "PARALYSE" PUBLIC HOSPITALS 
 
 
1.  Summary.  Doctors and nurses, both defined by the GOZ as 
providers of "essential services" and thus precluded from 
striking, are engaged in industrial action based on wage 
demands.  Economic realities increasingly compel workers of 
all levels to ignore GOZ laws which try to prevent them from 
striking.  End summary. 
 
2.  Junior and mid-level doctors have initiated the 
all-but-annual healthcare strike, in which government health 
care professionals demand significant wage increases.  After 
a similar strike last year, the Ministry of Health reviewed 
the duties of various health care professionals and assigned 
wages based on the resultant classifications.  Doctors at 
government hospitals are now demanding an increase from 
Z$378,000 per month to Z$30,000,000 per month (an 80-fold 
increase from approximately US$66.90 per month to US$5,309.73 
per month).  "Casualty doctors," many of whom are paid a 
somewhat higher rate, have joined the strike.  Reportedly, 
foreign doctors hired by the GOZ from Cuba and the DRC are 
the only ones who remain at work, while the GOZ's major 
referral hospitals are described as "paralysed" by the strike. 
 
3.  Nurses at government hospitals have also initiated their 
own strike, demanding an increase from their base wages, 
which range from Z$138,446 to Z$222,967 per month (US$24.50 
to US$39.46 per month).  Labor contacts report that the 
nurses are demanding wages in the vicinity of Z$800,000 
(US$141.59) per month. 
 
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COMMENT 
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4.  Both the Hospital Doctors Association and the Zimbabwe 
Nurses Association are professional associations, which are 
historically concerned with maintaining professional 
standards and self-regulation of members.  With the 
continuing economic decline, however, both organizations have 
taken on the traditional labor union functions of negotiating 
for wages and conditions of service.  The GOZ is already 
engaged in negotiation with the doctors and will inevitably 
come to some compromise, even if it does not meet the 
doctors' US$60,000 per annum demand.  The demands of the 
nurses, since they are less burdensome, may be met in full. 
 
5.  Both doctors and nurses are prohibited from striking 
through their specific inclusion in the definition of 
"essential services" in Statutory Instrument 127 of 2003, 
which includes "any service... the interruption of which 
endangers immediately the lives, personal safety or health of 
the whole or any part of the public."  Labor sources believe 
that all workers -- regardless of their designation of 
"essential" -- are increasingly inclined to ignore the GOZ 
pronouncements and engage in strikes based on wage demands. 
The GOZ is in a tight spot.  It must negotiate with the 
doctors to keep its battered health-care system afloat, 
another cog in its once-enviable infrastructure that is 
rapidly crumbling.  If salaries remain below US$100 monthly, 
many doctors will emigrate.  However, by giving in, the GOZ 
encourages all other "essential" services to follow suit. 
And in the current economic decline, with inflation at 455% 
and the parallel currency market running at 5650:1, there is 
little doubt that other "essential" services will comply. 
SULLIVAN