Health workers under the aegis of the Joint Health Sector Union, Edo State chapter, on Monday protested against what they described as the unwillingness of the Federal Government to implement a Memorandum of Understanding it reached with the union.
The aggrieved workers, who were drawn from the University of Benin Teaching Hospital and the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Uselu, wore black wrist bands, which they said reflected the poor state of the nation’s health sector.
They also decried the non-payment of the salary adjustment arrears and the two months arrears, which they said had been paid to the medical doctors.
The state Chairman of the Senior Staff Association of University Teaching Hospitals, Research Institutes and Associated Institutions, Mr. Frank Igbinovia, explained that the Federal Government had entered into an agreement with the union on August 26 and 27, 2013 to implement a National Industrial Court verdict in favour of JOHESU.
Igbinovia stated that the agreement bothered on the non-skipping of salary CONHESS 10, Call/Shift Duty and other professional allowances, among other issues.
Igbinovia said, “We, who are in the health sector, are telling the government that, as far as health is concerned, they have scored zero per cent.
“If you have scored zero per cent in health, what it means is that you have scored zero in all. That is why we have come out to tell the government to answer us. We are not asking for too much.”
The branch secretary of SSAUTHRIAI at the Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Uselu, Mr. Wellington Ogieriakhi, accused the Federal Government of showing bias by instituting an “obnoxious” no-work, no-pay policy, following the strike, which medical doctors were exempted from during their industrial action.
He said, “When doctors were on strike, there were no obnoxious circulars released concerning no work, no pay; they were paid their full salaries with their allowances.
“Now, we are on strike and the minister of health is intimidating us that we must come back to work or we won’t receive salaries. The bias is clear.”
The state Chairman of the National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives, Mr. Benjamin Okanigbuan, lamented that despite constituting the bulk of the health industry, the health workers had been neglected by the Federal Government.
On the call by the Chief Medical Directors of the Teaching and Specialist Hospitals, calling for a suspension of the strike, the UBTH branch secretary of the Non-Academic Staff Union, Mr. Yekini Momoh, argued that the strike was instituted by the union and not the health institutions.
“It was the national body of JOHESU that call the strike, not the CMDs in the teaching and specialist hospitals.
“They cannot tell us to come back to work. We are operating on the directives of the national body.
“So, if the Federal Government wants to direct the workers to resume work, they should negotiate with our national body and pay us our arrears,” he said.
