The Democratic Nurses’€™ Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA) has quietly signed an agreement on behalf of public sector doctors accepting an Occupational Specific Dispensation (OSD) offer they initially rejected. It is a compromise solution signed on condition that the categories of doctors who were not considered for a salary adjustment in government’€™s offer are now included.

‘€œThere was an overwhelming non-acceptance of that agreement. The major gripe was actually the fact that it was not addressing the majority of doctors in the public sector who are medical officers, specialists and senior specialists and some cadre of registrars. It was in that light, then, that DENOSA engaged the employer to say that they won’€™t be able to sign unless an undertaking was taken by the employer that they will revisit those doctors who were not taken care of, those who are in Level 10, 11 and 12. With lots of lobbying, there was also support by NEHAWU to that end. After a lot of negotiations and engagement the employer acceded to the fact that, yes, this is a genuine problem – the majority of doctors won’€™t be moved significantly with the proposal which has been put on the table’€, explained  Professor Mkhululi Lukhele, chairperson of public sector doctors in the South African Medical Association (SAMA).  

Lukhele added that the Health Department has ‘€œpromised that negotiations will re-open to specifically address the issue of doctors excluded from the current OSD offer’€.        

‘€œWhatever comes out of that will be implemented on the 1st of April 2010’€, he said.

Government’€™s promise to re-open negotiations, coupled with the fact that the 21 days that unions had to get a mandate from their constituencies and to respond to government’€™s offer had lapsed, forced the unions to back down and accept the offer.

‘€œThere was also the fact that the 21 days had lapsed, which had meant that if none of the unions come to do anything the employer was at liberty to implement whatever is on the table unilaterally. We thought under these circumstances, even if our members are not totally happy, we were comfortable to sign’€, said Lukhele.

 The agreement throws out the window what doctors had initially demanded for now – a minimum 50% salary adjustment. A survey commissioned by SAMA had shown that public sector doctors are hugely under-paid compared to other public sector professionals like judges, engineers and pilots, for example, who are on the same professional scale as doctors. The agreement is binding on all doctors, dentists, pharmacists and emergency personnel, as more than 51% of the admitted unions in the Bargaining Chamber have signed the amended proposal. The United Doctors’€™ Forum, a group formed following dissatisfaction with the negotiation process under the leadership of SAMA, has also accepted the agreement.

‘€œWe were not part of the signing and we were not part of the negotiations. Our point is that what is good for doctors, we will always stand by. It is binding because other unions have already signed on the same deal whether we like it or not as the United Doctors’€™ Forum’€, said Dr Bakani Siwele, interim chairperson of the United Doctors’€™ Forum.