Zimbabwe doctors end strike after reaching pay deal

HARARE, Mar 3 (Reuters) Zimbabwe's doctors have halted a two-month strike over pay that plunged the country's creaking health system into crisis, the health minister said today.

David Parirenyatwa told Reuters the government had agreed a pay deal with the doctors, who wanted better salaries to keep pace with Zimbabwe's roaring inflation.

Nurses and paramedics had also joined the strike, paralysing a public health system already stretched by the burden of HIV/AIDS, but they returned to work last month after agreeing a separate pay deal.

''That is now a thing of the past. Everything is back to normal,'' Parirenyatwa said.

Government doctors stopped work in December demanding an 8,000 per cent wage increase, while government could only offer a 300 per cent hike.

Before the industrial action, state doctors earned Z,000 a month, worth about 224 dollar at the official exchange rate but about 7 dollar on the black market.

The president of the Hospital Doctors Association, Kuda Nyamutukwa, confirmed doctors had agreed a pay deal with the government, but declined to give details of the new wages.

''Everyone is back at work now ... the (Health Services) Board has offered us a new pay package,'' Nyamutukwa said.

President Robert Mugabe's government has come under increased pressure from workers who have borne the brunt of a deepening economic crisis, which has seen inflation soaring to almost 1,600 per cent.

The authorities last week averted a full-scale strike by government employees when it awarded them the second wage increase in as many months after teachers -- who make up the majority of civil servants -- began a strike.

The government has begun talks with trade unions and business leaders over a proposed wage and price hike it hopes will arrest galloping inflation.

Analysts have warned rising discontent over the economic meltdown in Zimbabwe could trigger street protests against Mugabe's government.

REUTERS SP RN1636