The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, on
Sunday said the Federal Government will soon engage the leadership of the
striking National Association of Resident Doctors in a fresh talk with a view
to ending the ongoing strike.
He said the purpose of the fresh talk would be for the
striking resident doctors to explain to the government team the aspects of the
memorandum of action they signed on Thursday which they did not agree with.
Ngige spoke in a telephone interview with our correspondent
on Sunday.
Recall that the NARD, an association of doctors undergoing residency training, had on Thursday commenced what it called “a total and indefinite strike” despite government’s last-minute efforts to stop the action.
Shortly before the strike started, the leadership had signed
a memorandum of action with the Federal Government team, which made Ngige to
describe the strike as being in bad faith.
He had threatened that if the strike continued, the
government would look at all labour laws and consider the options available to
it, including that which empowered employers to protect their enterprise.
But on Sunday, Ngige insisted that it was not yet time to
invoke the no-work-no-pay rule.
The minister said, “We have not reached there
(no-work-no-pay option). I said so earlier.
“We are going to have a formal meeting with them so that
they will let us know the areas of the memorandum of action they signed that
they do not agree with.
“The meeting will hold next week. Immediately work resumes,
we will contact them and invite them to the meeting.”
Ngige, however, said there was the need for the strike to
end.
He said he would be checking with some offices when work
resumed after the Easter break on how far they had gone in paying the
outstanding house officers as directed.
“The house officers affected are the ones recruited above
the quota and those illegally recruited from January outside the central
portal.
“So, we are paying
everybody now and the formalisation of the portal. When we resume, we will know
where we are but we need to stop the strike.
“You don’t visit people during festivity with strike and
punish people who are sick. We are all working round the clock to end the
strike,” he added.
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