HARARE, Zimbabwe (AFP) — Zimbabwe has banned public health workers from going on a prolonged strike, with organisers facing jail time under a new law published on Tuesday that rights groups described as “draconian”.

The bill bars doctors and nurses from staging strikes lasting more than 72 hours.

Workers’ representatives who incite or organise protests contravening the regulation face up to six months in jail and a fine, under the law.

Health workers who take part in a strike might face disciplinary action.

The Zimbabwe Association for Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR) said the legislation risked pushing more workers to seek employment abroad.

“This bill … (is) in fact draconian,” ZADHR director Calvin Fambirai told AFP.

“We already had a risk of brain drain. Health workers have been leaving the country for greener pastures and this is likely to rise.”

Doctors and nurses have moved abroad en masse in recent years due to poor working conditions and pay amid runaway inflation.

In June they held a week-long wage strike complaining that a lack of basics such as paracetamol and bandages in hospitals was making their job difficult.

The latest statistics from Zimbabwe’s health watchdog show that over 4,000 health-care workers resigned from public institutions in the year to November — with many thought to have emigrated.

The bill was approved by Parliament last November and published in the government gazette on Tuesday.

It comes as rights groups and opposition parties have complained of an increased government clampdown on dissent with general elections due this year.