By CHUSA SICHONE –

THE Ministry of Health has assured reinstated nurses who are not yet on the payroll that the matter will soon be resolved.
The nurses participated in the 2013 illegal strike, but they have been reappointed under a Government amnesty.
Ministry of Health technical support services director Reuben Mbewe said in response to a Press query that the measures were in accordance with existing terms and conditions of service under which the nurses were re-engaged.
“Work is in progress to put all concerned on the payroll. However, this is dependent on when an officer or nurse reports for duty. These measures are in accordance with existing terms and conditions of service under which the officers were reappointed,” he said.
On anomalies concerning the pay slips, Dr Mbewe said if a Government employee was dismissed from the Civil Service and subsequently removed from the payroll, the last information which reflected on the employee’s pay slip at a time of termination would remain on record.
“In the event of re-introduction on payroll, the employee’s last information on the pay slip at the point of termination will normally appear on the current pay slip. This scenario explains how the dismissed nurses’ pay slip reflected old data.
“You may further wish to note that if an officer wishes to change any of his/her information on the pay slip or has noticed that there is an error then he or she is at liberty to consult or notify the end user
so that an anomaly can be corrected as the Government has trained payroll end users placed in all facilities to attend to payroll related queries,” he said.
Dr Mbewe was reacting to concerns by some nurses based at the University Teaching Hospital who were part of the 570 fired for participating in an illegal strike in 2013 that they had not been put on the payroll despite being reappointed in January this year.
Health Deputy Minister Chitalu Chilufya said in a recent interview that Government reinstated all the dismissed nurses and thus expected them to be on the payroll.
Dr Chilufya described as a purely administrative matter not putting nurses on the payroll after being reinstated and expected the human resource directorate to rectify the anomaly.