Doctors at Zimbabwe’s public hospitals downed tools on Tuesday and are demanding a salary hike of more than 400 percent to cushion them from the rising cost of living.
Members of the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association refused to report for work on Tuesday as they accused the government of negotiating in bad faith.
The doctors are demanding salaries to be pegged at the prevailing United States dollar exchange rate. The rate stood at 11.3 Zimbabwe dollars to the American greenback on Tuesday.
The salaries were previously pegged to the US dollar until the government removed the peg early this year and outlawed transactions in foreign currencies.
As a result of the government move, most Zimbabwean workers have seen their salaries eroded by inflation.
JN/APA