Chronicle Editor
Angela Sibanda, Chronicle Reporter
PARLIAMENTARIANS will next week conduct public hearings on the Health Services Amendment Bill which seeks to outlaw industrial action by health workers lasting for more than three days.
The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health and Child Care has announced that it will be conducting public hearings countrywide for the Health Services Amendment Bill that was gazetted in July last year.
The proposed law governs the operations of all medically qualified personnel and everyone employed to assist them in the Ministry of Health and Child Care, local authorities or at mission hospitals.
The Bill will amend the Health Service Act in order to require hospital management boards to get the Commission’s approval for the appointment of staff and require the Minister to act “in consultation with the Commission” when establishing management boards for Government hospitals.
The Bill also seeks to align the existing Health Services Act of 2005 with the Constitution. In Clause Five, the Bill states that health services shall be deemed an essential service as referred to in the Constitution and that all industrial action should not last more than 48 hours.
“No collective job action whether lawful or unlawful shall continue for an uninterrupted period of 72 hours or for more than 72 hours in any given 14-day period, and notice of any collective job action must be given in writing 48 hours prior to the commencement of such collective job action.
“Any individual who is a member of the governing body of any trade union or representative body of members of the Health Service which incites or organises any collective job action shall be guilty of any an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding level 10 or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding three years or to both such fine and such imprisonment,” reads the Clause.
The consultations will be conducted by two teams that will be visiting all the provinces and the hearings should be concluded in one week.
The first team will cover Chinhoyi in Mashonaland West province on Monday, Gweru in the Midlands province on Tuesday, Gwanda in Matabeleland South on Wednesday, Victoria Falls in Matabeleland North on Thursday and Bulawayo on Friday.
The second team will cover Masvingo on Monday, Mutare on Tuesday, Marondera on Wednesday, Bindura on Thursday and Harare on Friday.
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