Doctors and nurses in Nigeria Friday called off their 18-day strike action, called to protest against the government's failure to offer better conditions of service, according to report by the state-owned Federal Radio Corporation Network news.
Human Resources
Nigeria: Doctors and Nurses Call Off Crippling 18-day Strike
ZAMBIA'S STRIKING PUBLIC WORKERS SCALE DOWN DEMANDS
Striking public workers in Zambia have scaled down their demands from a 100 percent pay hike to a "reasonable" salary increment, a union leader said Monday. "We have come down from our initial demand. We have asked the government to give us a reasonable offer," Darison Chaala, secretary general of the Civil Servants Union of Zambia, told AFP.
Zambia: Social Services Crippled by Three-Week Strike
A three-week long strike by Zambian public sector workers has crippled hundreds of schools and hospitals and slowed the delivery of other key government services in this impoverished southern African country. However, a preoccupation with an unfolding political crisis that could see a parliamentary motion to impeach embattled President Frederick Chiluba being passed appears to have diverted official attention from the resultant social crisis.
Helping hand - easing the burden of HIV on child health services in Africa
How are hospitals in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) coping with the large number of children infected with HIV? Can hospital staff deal with the increasing workload? What can hospitals in the developed world do to help?
How are African hospitals coping with the rising burden of HIV?
How is the HIV/AIDS epidemic affecting healthcare systems in developing countries? Can existing services cope? Two-thirds of people infected with HIV live in sub-Saharan Africa. Research by the UK Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine has examined the effect of high HIV prevalence on healthcare services in Kenya and South Africa.
Seeing red: training healthworkers to screen for anaemia in pregnancy
Anaemia affects around two billion people worldwide. Pregnant women and children are the major groups at risk. The World Health Organisation (WHO)recommends anaemia screening for all pregnant women and has developed a simple Haemoglobin Colour Scale test. Can this test be used reliably in regions with limited resources? How effective is the WHO-recommended training programme?
Zambia paralysed by by workers' strike
Some 80000 striking state workers in Zambia vowed yesterday to pursue a work stoppage which has paralysed operations in ministries and hospitals if their pay demands were not met, a trade union leader said. Zambia Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) deputy president Japhet Moonde said union leaders presented their demands for a 100 percent pay hike to Vice President Enos Kavindele yesterday, as the strike entered its second week.
Maternity Issues a National Obligation
This week, Nairobi hosted an important workshop to discuss the International Labour Organisation's Maternity Protection Convention.
A striking feature of the meeting was the low-level of involvement by both the Government and the Central Organisation of Trade Unions (Cotu).
As one speaker reminded the participants, women - biologically the only ones equipped to carry and bear children - should not be penalised for this vital role. Thus the campaign to provide better maternity protection is not a women's issue. It is a social responsibility that should be borne by all. ILO Convention 183 aims to provide better working conditions and terms for expectant and nursing mothers, including adequate paid leave and protection from discrimination, and a working environment that may harm the health of mother and child.
Patients' Distress Deepens As Lagos Doctors Join Strike
As expected, the traditional toll on human lives and welfare that usually attends doctors' strike has set in nationwide with patients and their
relations running hither and you for succour but getting none-except in private hospitals. Yet, the gladiators - the federal government and the Nigerian Medical Association - are showing no signs of calling a truce.
Public sector bosses could face super union
PUBLIC sector management should brace itself to face a much stronger union if the merger plans by affiliates of the Congress of SA Trade Unions organising in this sector succeed. All Cosatu public service unions will meet in the middle of June to discuss forming a single public sector union. This development is in line with Cosatu's resolution, adopted by the federation's 1991 and 1997 congresses, which called for the establishment of super unions or cartels by way of mergers. Two other Cosatu affiliates, the National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union (Nehawu) and the SA Municipal Workers' Union (Samwu), are already involved in a merger plan.