Union urges nurses stop working extra hours

The scretary general of the Namibia Nurses Union (Nanu), Junias Shilunga, has called on nurses to stop working overtime if the government does not intervene.

This comes after nurses across the country say they are forced to forfeit a substantial portion of their overtime hours, with a restriction of claiming for only 10 hours of overtime work per month, and eight hours per month for shifts on Sundays and public holidays.

“We are calling on the nurses to stop working extra hours if the government sticks to its illegal directives.

“We have become a sacrificial lamb for a dysfunctional and degenerating system in Namibia,” Shilunga says.

He was speaking during a nurses’ conference under the theme ‘Exploitation of Health Workers and the Collapsing of the Healthcare System’ at Otjiwarongo on Wednesday.

“If the government is not going to address the issues timely, people’s lives will be in danger.

“For more than 10 years the government has failed to provide nurses with uniforms.

“This has not only affected nurses financially as they are forced to fork money out of their pockets, but has caused a serious erosion of the professional identity of nursing,” Shilunga said.

“Our hospitals are limping because those who are entrusted to save them and make sure nurses are able to deliver quality healthcare have developed the chronic ‘I Don’t Care’ disease,” he said.

Shilunga said the Ministry of Health and Social Services has limited the number of hours nurses are paid for, without due regard to the provisions of the Labour Act.

“A nurse working at towns like Grootfontein can work more than 18 hours just by accompanying a sick patient referred to Windhoek hospitals for special care.

“This literally means that such a nurse could end up working more than 20 hours overtime in two days, And to us, as a union, this amounts to slavery and cannot be tolerated in a free democratic society,” he said.

Shilunga said hospitals are critically understaffed, and nurses are overwhelmed.

“Hundreds of graduate nurses are sitting at home unemployed, and more are waiting to join them, while the government is refusing to employ them,’’ he said.

Shilunga said nurses working at clinics must stop working on weekends and after hours if the clinic has not been proclaimed as a healthcare facility.

“We have noted that in some regions, nurses are forced to be on standby during weekends and cannot move out of the clinic’s vicinity, but they are not getting compensated for that unless they see a patient.

“We are calling on the government to pay all the overtime hours worked as per the Labour Act of Namibia,” he said.

Trade Union Congress of Namibia (Tucna) secretary general Mahongora Kavihuha yesterday said the union would challenge the issue, and is in the process of completing the legal requirements to do so.

“For us, this practice is serious exploitation, very insensitive and a direct violation of nurses’ rights.

“We have taken the first step and will later take the matter to the Ministry of Labour, Industrial Relations and Employment Creation,” he said.

Executive director of health and social services Ben Nangombe, when contacted for comment yesterday was unable to respond as he was in a meeting.

Last month, health minister Kalumbi Shangula said the approval of overtime hours worked is done by accounting officers in terms of the Labour Act.

“In fact, the Labour Act prohibits overtime work. However, where the employer feels the need for overtime, the employer requests the employee to agree to work overtime for a specific time.
“Overtime is not done on demand by the employee,” he said.