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Cham strike called off

Christian Health Association of Malawi (Cham) employees have called off their nationwide strike following government’s assurance to meet their demands barely two days after laying down tools.

Spokesperson for Cham workers Chisomo Mkandawire confirmed the development in an interview yesterday, but indicated that they had agreed to return to work with some conditions.

Some Cham workers captured during the strike last week
Some Cham workers captured during the strike last week

“We have agreed to go back to work on Monday [today] following government’s commitment that it will pay us our dues. However, we have given it seven days to ensure that the matter is resolved or else we will carry on with the stay-away,” said Mkandawire.

The aggrieved workers went on strike last Thursday following the expiry of their seven-day ultimatum given to their employer and government to address their salary and leave grants disparities.

The disgruntled workers are also yet to get their February salaries and Mkandawire said they were expecting to receive new remuneration together with arrears starting from October 2014 so that they are at par with their colleagues in the mainstream civil service.

On Thursday evening, just hours after the strike began, Minister of Health Jean Kalirani met Cham management and board members to convey a message from Treasury that government had agreed to pay the striking workers and that it had approved a K1 billion settlement for salary arrears.

Board chairperson for Cham Father Peter Mulomole pleaded with the striking staff to resume work following government’s promise to meet their demands.

However, Mkandawire warned that should their demands fail to be honoured within a week, they will go on a full-blown strike that would cripple a huge chunk of healthcare service delivery in the country.

Cham facilities constitute 37 percent of the country’s healthcare service delivery out of which more than 90 percent serve rural and hard-to-reach areas where public health centres are mostly unavailable.

Said Mkandawire: “We are expecting new February salaries, our four-month salary arrears [October, November, December and January] and non-taxed leave grants for 2014/2015. If this is not honoured within the week, we will proceed with our strike and this time it will be terrible because we will even withdraw the services for support staff for emergency cases.”

The workers started agitating for an industrial strike in October last year soon after government announced new salary structures for civil servants.

Cham and government signed a memorandum of understanding in 2001 which allows the latter to be paying salaries of the former’s workers as one way of ensuring that the cost of running the facilities was not being recouped through expensive user fees.

Over the past three months, government has been blanketed by strikes that have put a painful strain on the public purse.

Some of the industrial actions include those at the Judiciary, that went on for months, the University of Malawi and the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), among other public agencies.

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