After two months on strike, the Association of Resident Doctors, ARD, University College Hospital, UCH, Ibadan, on Tuesday announced that its members would be going back to work for the next one month to allow further negotiation on issues leading to the industrial action.
The union began the strike on October 1 in protest against anomalies in the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System, IPPIS, recently introduced by the Federal Government.
According to the ARD President, Babatunde Babasanya, the strike was suspended out of respect for some eminent Nigerians who offered to mediate the impasse between the Association and the Federal Government.
The mediators, he said, included the UCH authorities and well meaning Nigerians, who have been appealing to the association to suspend the strike and give room for intervention.
Mr. Babasanya said the decision to suspend the strike was reached after a six-hour congress, where members agreed to give a month to see if the Federal Government would pay all the outstanding money.
“It is so sad that the IPPS scheme has caused most of our members to lose part of their August and September salaries. Some were paid as cooks, security men, cleaners and the likes, while others did not even collect any salary for these months. We were even shocked that when our November salary was paid, the shortfalls were not corrected,” he said.
The doctors wanted the August and September salaries regularised, as well as assurance that anomalies would not reflect in the December salaries if they prevent resumption of the strike.
“We are not asking the government for excessive money. This is our salary which we have worked for. We cannot cope further with this financial hardship that has befallen us.
“The government has blatantly refused to yield to our request but we are suspending it for peace to reign. The Federal Government has been shortchanging UCH authorities – N100 million every month since January – and this has been hampering the progress of this institution,” he said.
The ARD leader appealed to the Federal Government to address all issues raised. Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
Have they met their demands or they are simply afraid of no work no pay from third month. ASUP faced the same fear before and called off. we know the story.
ReplyDelete