HEALTH WORKERS STRIKE: NIGERIAN GOVT, JOHESU HOLD CRUCIAL MEETING MONDAY
HEALTH WORKERS STRIKE:
NIGERIAN GOVT, JOHESU HOLD CRUCIAL MEETING MONDAY
Health Minister, Prof. Isaac Adewole
The
federal government and the striking Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU), will
reconvene on Monday in a bid to find a resolution to the strike.
This
was indicated in a statement by the Ministry of Health on Sunday in reaction to
an advert sponsored by JOHESU in the Daily Trust Newspaper of Saturday April
28.
The
union in the advert accused the Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole, of denying
the existence of an agreement between it and the Nigerian government in 2014.
The
ministry, in a statement signed by the Assistant Director of Information,
Olajide Oshundun, said the information JOHESU gave in the advert was incorrect
and misleading.
JOHESU,
a union comprising of all health workers in Nigeria apart from medical doctors
and dentists, has been on an indefinite strike for 12 days crippling healthcare
delivery across federal institutions.
In the
statement, the minister said there was no agreement between the government and
JOHESU prior to the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
He
described the advert as unwarranted and misinformation to the public.
Mr
Adewole said the federal government is doing everything in its power to resolve
the matter.
He
explained that what “JOHESU was brandishing as 2014 agreement were minutes of
meetings they had with the organs of Federal Government.”
He
added that in September 2017, JOHESU presented 15-point demand. He said the
federal government has implemented 14 out of it while the last demand is still
being attended to by the “high level body set up by the government to look into
its implementation”.
According
to the statement, the September 2017 agreement stated that: “The meeting noted
that two different figures had been submitted to the National Salaries and
Wages Commission on separate occasions.
“It was
observed that the figures are no longer realistic due to lapse of time. The
NSIWC should therefore do a fresh submission based on new data consistent with
the present reality. The FMOH is expected to make available necessary and
required data to NSIWC to enable fresh computation.
“The
newly computed figures will be forwarded by National Salaries and Wages
Commission to the Federal Ministry of Health for onward transmission for
processing to the high level body (HLB), of the government and thereafter to
Federal Ministry of Health within five weeks.”
This
has been done, the statement added.
Speaking
on other efforts to settle the dispute, the minister said the federal
government has put machinery in place to ensure that the strike is called off
by meeting with JOHESU officials on several occasions, the last being on April
25, at the office of the Minister of Labour and Employment in Abuja.
Mr
Adewole disclosed that the government has offered JOHESU members opportunity to
adjust their salaries and wages, “but what JOHESU is asking for is parity with
medical doctors which is not practicable or acceptable to the Federal
Government.”
He said
a cursory look at the salary tables in the health sector before and after
independence till date have always reflected relativity and the 2014 salary adjustment
for medical doctors was to correct the anomaly of 2009 and restore relativity.
He
appealed to JOHESU to immediately call off the strike and allow the high level
body to conclude its assignment as contained in the 2017 agreement.
The
union had vowed that state and local government health institutions will join
the strike within two weeks if the government fails to accede to the demands.
JOHESU
also said it is no longer ready to go back to the negotiation table with the
government.
PREMIUM
TIMES could not immediately get the union’s reaction to some of the claims in
the statement.