The state laboratory has moved to have its staff declared essential workers in a bid to prevent potentially crippling strikes, it emerged on Tuesday

The National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) provides all the diagnostic tests for patients using the public health sector, including those for Covid-19, HIV and tuberculosis. Three years ago it confronted a crippling strike that forced it to outsource emergency tests to the private sector, and it now faces the threat of fresh industrial action over a wage dispute with members of National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu)...

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