admintechnicians, emergency medical services, maternity homes, dental, renal and radiology services attended the meeting.
Addressing the meeting, chairman of the steering committee that established the NEC Mr Henry Mandishona said the process had taken seven years.
He commended the Private Hospitals Association and the trade union covering the rest of the industry for their cooperation.
Mr Mandishona — who is the PSMI group human resources director — said the idea of establishing the NEC was to amend the scope of covering the welfare of all personnel in the medical industry.
He said they started deliberations with the Health Trade Union, while the Private Hospitals Association provided the platform for the NEC launch.
“We faced a lot of challenges along the way with the Welfare for Education Trust claiming ownership of health personnel,” said Mr Mandishona.
“They even took the issue to the Labour Court where the case is pending determination.”
He saluted the Ministry of Labour and Social Services for registering the NEC after considering their argument that they do not belong to the education sector.
HTU secretary general Mr Mike Sambo said the establishment of the NEC would now enable them to come up with a Collective Bargaining Agreement for the health sector.
A labour officer with the Ministry of Labour and Social Services Ms Shebah Gweshe urged the NEC to set up an independent secretariat.
The meeting also resolved that the steering committee be the acting NEC board and full council, before election of substantive members.
The steering committee was also tasked with recruiting full time members to run the secretariat independently.
It was also agreed that workers should contribute two percent of their salaries to the NEC while the employers would be required to remit another two percent on behalf of their workers.
The NEC is expected to come up with a CBA during the first quarter of 2013 after auditing of all positions in the medical sector, job profiling and a grading exercise.
Online Reporter
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