Nurses threatened to work in their own clothes if problems with uniforms and uniform allowances were not resolved.
The Department of Health has averted a standoff with nurses in the public sector with a last-minute agreement to pay nurses a temporary allowance to buy uniforms.
Nurses threatened to work in their own clothes if the department failed to provide them either with uniforms or with an allowance by 1 October. This location was establish on hold pending negotiations between unions and the health department.
Since 2005, nurses received an annual allowance to buy their uniforms. But this ended on 31 March this year after a novel agreement was signed by the Public Health and Social Development Sectoral Bargaining Council. Under the modern agreement, nurses would be provided with uniforms.
As a result, nurses did not access the usual allowance in April this year. Instead, they were supposed to be provided with uniforms by 1 October 2023.
The agreement stated that in the first year, the department must provide nurses with four sets of uniforms, one pair of shoes, and one jersey. In the second year, it must provide three sets of uniforms, one belt, and one jacket.
But then, at a last-minute meeting of the bargaining council in September, the department told unions that it would be unable to meet the 1 October deadline. It proposed to place on hold the supply of uniforms until 2024.
Spokesperson for the Democratic Nursing Association of South Africa (DENOSA) Sibongiseni Delihlazo said labour unions said that if the department was unable to supply the uniform by 1 October, they must pay nurses an allowance as previously.
If the department failed to provide uniforms or pay an allowance, DENOSA said, its 84,000 members would embark on an indefinite protest action by wearing their own clothes at work from 1 October.
Following the last-minute bargaining council meeting in September, a novel agreement was signed on 4 October.
The bargaining council resolved that a temporary uniform allowance of R3,153 be paid to all qualifying nurses by 30 November 2023. The health department also agreed to provide nurses with uniforms by 1 September 2024.
If the department fails to provide the uniforms by 1 September 2024, “the uniform allowance shall continue, considering the applicable inflation rate annually, as pronounced by the National Treasury in February”, the agreement read.
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Mosquit-No
Now Now – immediately / soon. A confusing phrase for non-locals meaning sometime soon – sooner than just now but quicker than right now.Example: “We’re going to the beach now now!” (But first we have to pack our swimming gear, stop at gas station and maybe get some snacks…).
East Army
So Van is in a bar in London with a Frenchman and an Italian. They are boasting of their sexual prowess.
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The Italian, not to be outdone, says \”When I make love to my girlfriend, I lick amaretto liqueur from her navel. She floats a foot above the bed in delight\”.
Van says \”Ya, well, er… When I screw my wife, I wipe my dick on the curtains afterwards, and let me tell you man, she hits the fuckin\’ roof!\”