By MILLENNIUM REPORTER
A STRIKE is looming for medical doctors following their omission by government from the 10.5 percent salary increment for civil servants.
Earlier this year, government announced a 10.5 percent across the board salary increase for all civil servants following a successful labor bargain with the unions.
But Doctors have been omitted from the increment with most of them only receiving about five percent percent which has riled them and they are now planning to down their tools as they demand that government should award then the 10.5 percent increase.
A check within the medical facilities has confirmed that doctors are planning to down tools as their grievances with the authorities have not been addressed.
And Zambia Medical Association (ZMA) general secretary Roy Tolopu has confirmed with Millennium Radio that the doctors were aggrieved, saying that they have reached a breaking point and that it was only a matter of time before they down tools.
Dr Tolopu says the ZMA and Resident Doctors had made efforts to engage Cabinet Office and the Ministry of Health but that nothing has been resolved so far.
The Civil Servants Allied Workers Union of Zambia says the 10.5 percent increment does not carter for Doctors because they are at Management level.
Union president Davy Chiyobe said the Union did not bargain for the Doctors because they are of a different salary scale but all civil servants have been catered for. And efforts to get a position of the Permanent Secretary in charge of remuneration at Cabinet Office Mwamba Peni proved futile by Broadcast time as his mobile phone went unanswered.
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