Durban - Nursing union Denosa has welcomed the extension of contracts for Covid-19 health-care workers in the province.
On Wednesday, the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Executive Council announced that it supported the move to extend the contracts of 7 051 employees who were recruited on a six-month contract to help bolster the province's fight against Covid-19.
The KZN PEC said the retention of these staff members for a further six months to work on Covid-19 sites was a major boost to KZN's resurgence plans and would ensure that the province was equal to the task in the event that the country was hit by a second wave.
These contracts have been extended until the end of March 2021.
Denosa KZN Provincial Secretary, Mandla Shabangu, said they were pleased with the decision to extend the contracts.
"We have been engaging the department to convert these positions from contracts to permanent, due to the fact that there has been gross shortage in all hospitals. Covid-19 is not over yet. To us, it was not acceptable to terminate these contracts in the mix of Covid-19. We are pleased that all contracts will be extended. We believe that this will give us an opportunity to further engage the department to make these posts permanent," Shabangu said.