MEC orders striking morgue staff to get back to work

KZN’s health head Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo. Picture: Sibonelo Ngcobo

KZN’s health head Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo. Picture: Sibonelo Ngcobo

Published Dec 5, 2018

Share

Durban - Staff at the Fort Napier Medico-Legal Mortuary in Pietermaritzburg have been told to get back to work or face arrest.

This is according to the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health after staff downed tools two weeks ago.

MEC, Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo, today warned that staff could face arrest for up to 30 days for contempt of court.

This comes after numerous failed attempts to persuade the workers to abandon the go slow.

The department said it first issued an ultimatum which was followed by an interim order granted by the court to try and interdict the workers from participating in an illegal strike. 

“When not much response resulted from the interim order, another application for being in contempt of court order was filed by the Department. All this action happened simultaneously with the roll out of contingency plans to keep services running amid challenging circumstances that were taking a toll on many grieving families,” a statement from the department read.

According department, the court prounounced on two applications yesterday.

These applications granted the final order to interdict workers from embarking on a wild cat strike and further granted the second court order for the workers being in contempt of court.  However, the labour union Nehawu, which also had a representative in court, pleaded for the immediate suspension of the implementation of the court order which would have seen arrests of all those that are subjected to it since yesterday. The labour union then committed that workers will abide by the order from today.

According to the statement, the department then affords the workers this very last opportunity to go back to work today, and is closely monitoring the situation. If the workers fail to return to work and work at optimum level, the department will be left with no option but to return to court to ask the judge to lift the suspension of the order so that laws of dealing with wild cat strikes can be implemented against employees.

“The department has already begun addressing some of the employees' grievances - such as protective clothing and the faulty airconditioning system - at provincial level. Other grievances involving remuneration are being dealt with through ongoing negotiations at national level,” the statement read.

Daily News

Related Topics: