President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the payment of
health workers whose salaries were withheld when they embarked on strike.
Chris Ngige, minister of labour and employment, disclosed
this on Thursday while speaking to journalists after a meeting with the
president at the state house in Abuja.
The development comes months after Buhari promised that the
salary arrears of health workers would be cleared, following strike actions
embarked upon by health workers.
Speaking when he met with representatives of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) in September, Buhari had urged the resident doctors who were on strike at the time — the NMA and JOHESU had also threatened to stop work — to reconsider their action.
“Embarking on
industrial action at this time when Nigerians need you most is not the best
action to take, no matter the grievances. This administration has a good track
record of paying all debts owed to government workers, pensioners and
contractors and we have even revisited debts left by past administrations, once
due verification is done. Debts genuinely owed health workers will be settled,”
the president had said.
According to Ngige, Buhari has directed the ministry of
finance, budget and national planning to effect the payment of doctors, nurses
and other health workers for the period they were on strike in 2018 and 2021.
“Mr. President has approved last week and I have the
authority and letter directing the minister of finance to release the funds of
the resident doctors for September and October 2021, which was seized in
conformity with the law,” he said.
“In the same vein,
the approval also covers members of the JOHESU who went on strike in 2018 for
three months. After the first month, after March when they couldn’t come back,
we asked that their pay be suspended. This is in tandem with the ILO principles
at work. You have a right to strike, but the employer has a right to stop your
remuneration and if possible, use it to keep his enterprise going by taking new
hands, where possible, especially in essential services.
“So, that same money for 2018 April and May, Mr. President
has again approved that the finance minister refunds or re-imburse, on
compassionate grounds, those payments.
“This is predicated on the grounds that this group of
workers has been showing a lot of dedication and concern to the COVID pandemic
and that their hazard allowance for 2021 had remained what it was before.”
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