Mater Dei Hospital fails to pay workers

Patrick Chitumba Senior Reporter
NURSES and support staff at the Catholic-run Mater-Dei Hospital in Bulawayo have not been paid for the past two months.
Disgruntled nurses who are part of a workforce of about 100 at the private institution yesterday accused the hospital’s administration of having misplaced priorities.
They argued that the health facility was generating enough funds to cater for them, but was choosing to treat matters to do with their welfare as a peripheral issue.

Sister Maureen Jameson, the hospital’s administrator confirmed to Chronicle yesterday that there had been delays in the payment of staff salaries.

“Yes, we are unfortunately late in payment of salaries,” she said.
“We are waiting for medical aid societies to settle their accounts. They are our major source of income,” she added.

She denied that they had misplaced priorities, saying medical aid societies are the ones that had short-changed them.
Speaking on condition of anonymity some nurses argued that the highly-rated hospital was realising enough revenue to pay them.

“It’s not like they don’t have money. We have clients paying in cash and others are using the best medical aids societies, which pay in time. It’s just that they have misplaced priorities,” said one nurse.

The hospital is said to be charging patients $128 for admission per night while paying full time nurses salaries ranging from $500 to $600 per month.

Some of the hospital staff who have not been paid include nurse aids, part time nurses and general hands.
Nurses alleged victimisation by the hospital management if one raises the salary issue.

“The hospital administrators are not addressing us on the salary issue. They are just quiet about it and no one dares to ask them because if you ask, you become a target. Planning a demonstration is also dangerous as they target the leaders,” said another nurse.

The workers said the hospital authorities were always reminding them that there were a lot of unemployed nurses who could replace all of them at short notice.