By Rutendo Bamu:

The government yesterday made a major climb down from its belligerent position of threatening to fire doctors who are defying its order to return to work by striking a conciliatory chord that no action would be taken to give negotiations a chance.

Doctors have since appealed against the Labour Court order that said they should have reported for work on Monday morning. The appeal is yet to be heard and the medical practitioners are not back at work, citing incapacitation.

Health minister Obadiah Moyo said government was appealing to doctors to come back to work and no action would be taken against them for the industrial action as a way to pave for negotiations. Moyo was speaking soon after the weekly Cabinet meeting.

However, doctors vowed to remain put until their grievances are addressed.

Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association secretary-general Tapiwa Zvakada said the Labour Court ruling defied all logic and did not capacitate them, hence they were not going back to work.

“It’s true that incapacitation is real evidenced by the numbers of the doctors here. We have noted with dismay the verdict from Labour Court and unfortunately it doesn’t capacitate any one of us,” he said.

ZHDA treasurer-general Tapiwa Mungofa added that the “court order did not capacitate them and will not make them go back to work as they will not use the court order to buy fuel and food”.

The doctors insisted they were ready to be fired if their grievances were not addressed. They argue that going back to work is like doing national service for no payment since their salaries having been reduced by a factor of 10 due to raging inflation.

Doctors are demanding that they get back to their salaries in United States dollars but paid at the going interbank rate on the date of payment and that the government should improve their working conditions.