Health: Strike: FG Evokes ‘No Work, No Pay’ Policy Against Resident Doctors

By Ayodele Ifasakin 

The Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare has evoked the “No Work, No Pay” policy against the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) over its recent warning strike.

NARD had embarked on a nationwide seven-day warning strike on Monday over the continued detention of its abducted member , Dr. Ganiyat Popoola-Olawale.

Strike: FG Evokes ‘No Work, No Pay’ Policy Against Resident Doctors

In a statement Thursday signed by its spokesman, Ado Bako, the ministry expressed deep disappointment over NARD’s decision to embark on the warning strike.

The ministry said the association did so disregarding all negotiations and plea attempts by the federal government to resolve its concerns and ensure continued industrial harmony.

The ministry also said it found the decision to proceed with the strike action, in the midst of the ongoing discussions, deeply regrettable saying it believes that continued dialogue is the best approach to resolving any outstanding issues.

” In view of this, the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare wishes to bring to the notice of the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), that in line with extant labour laws, the Federal Government will evoke the “No Work, No Pay” for the number of days the strike was observed. This measure is not intended to undermine the legitimate concerns of our medical professionals but to ensure that essential healthcare services are not unduly disrupted to the detriment of the public,” the ministry said in the statement.

The statement said the ministry would not relent in its efforts to guarantee the safety, improve the welfare and working conditions of all healthcare workers, including resident doctors.

“Significant strides have been made in recent negotiations, and the government has demonstrated good faith by addressing many of the concerns highlighted by NARD,” it said.

The ministry further said that it had been working tirelessly over the past months, in collaboration with relevant security agencies, including the Office of the National Security Adviser, NSA, to ensure the immediate and safe rescue of Dr Ganiyat Popoola.

While saying that high-level discussions and coordinated efforts are currently underway, it said it remains confident that these measures will lead to a positive outcome.

The federal ministry of health also enjoined all resident doctors to return to the negotiation table so that they could collaboratively find lasting solutions to the challenges facing the healthcare sector.

Health: Why Resident Doctors Embarked On Nationwide Strike

By Ayodele Ifasakin 

The Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has declared a nationwide 7-day warning strike, commencing on Monday, August 26, 2024, at 12 am.

Health: Resident Doctors Embarked On Nationwide Strike 

The strike is in response to the abduction of Dr. Ganiyat Popoola, a registrar in the Department of Ophthalmology at the National Eye Centre, Kaduna.

Dr. Dele Abdullahi, President of NARD, announced the strike during an emergency meeting of the National Executive Council.

“The strike is total, and there will be no concessions or emergency care during this period,” he said.

Dr. Popoola was kidnapped on December 27, 2023, along with her husband and nephew. Although her husband was released in March, Dr. Popoola and her nephew remain in captivity after eight months.

Recall that NARD members protested against Dr. Popoola’s abduction on Thursday, August 15, in Lagos. The demonstration was organized by resident doctors of Federal Medical Centre, Ebute-Metta.

POWER OUTAGE: NATIONAL UNION OF ELECTRICITY EMPLOYEES SUSPENDS STRIKE

AgegePulse Magazine

The National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) has suspended its strike embarked upon on Wednesday to draw federal government’s attention to the plight of its members.

Following a meeting with officials of the federal government, the union accepted to discontinue the one-day old strike.

According the National President of NUEE, Comrade Joe Ajaero, who confirmed the outcome of the meeting to THISDAY, the workers’ grievances were conclusively addressed.

He said that all the concerns of the union and its members were addressed at the talks which lasted till the wee hours of today.

“We have concluded deliberations and all issues were addressed but we are awaiting implementation. Meanwhile, our strike action is suspended,” Ajaero said.

Following the expiration of the 21 days ultimatum issued by NUEE to the Minister of Power, Saleh Mamman, to implement their demands, and the failure of the minister to dialogue with the union before the ultimatum which lapsed midnight Tuesday, a nationwide blackout was imminent as electricity workers began indefinite strike Wednesday morning.

The strike led to the shutting down of most of the offices of Distribution Companies (Discos) across the country.


 (THISDAY)

Why We Suspended Nationwide Strike- ASUU

AgegePulse Magazine

Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on Thursday suspended its nationwide strike after three months.

ASUU National President, Professor Biodun Ogunyemi, announced this at a press conference in Abuja, the nation’s capital.

The union suspended the industrial action following its latest meeting with representatives of the Federal Government led by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Nigige.

READ ALSO: ASUU Suspends Nationwide Strike After Three Months

Read the full statement issued by the ASUU President below;

ACADEMIC STAFF UNION OF UNIVERSITIES (ASUU), NATIONAL SECRETARIAT. TEXT OF A PRESS CONFERENCE BY THE ACADEMIC STAFF UNION OF UNIVERSITIES (ASUU), THURSDAY, 7TH FEBRUARY, 2019, AT NIGERIA LABOUR CONGRESS HEADQUARTERS, PASCAL BAFYAU HOUSE, ABUJA

Protocol

Friends and compatriots of the Press, On Sunday, 4th November, 2018, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) resumed its strike action which was conditionally suspended on 14th September, 2017.

The action of 2017 was suspended following the signing of a Memorandum of Action (MoA) in which the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) promised to address the contentious issues within a timeline that was to end in October 2017.

While announcing the suspension of the nationwide action, however, our Union made it categorically clear that “ASUU will not hesitate to review its position should government renege on the signed Memorandum of Action”.

Predictably, Government implemented the MoA in the breach, thereby forcing ASUU to resume the suspended strike action.

Comrades and compatriots, as we have always argued, the last thing ASUU members love doing is to cause disruption in smooth intellectual engagements with colleagues, friends and students right on our university campuses.

This has nothing to do with the dubious advertorial of “non-disruption of academic calendar” by proprietors and administrators of some cash-and-carry universities and other self-styled enemies of ASUU.

Rather, it is about deep-seated pains members of the Union undergo to prevent strike actions and the equally painful consequences strike situations bring to all who are genuinely averse to the mercantile disposition to university education.

Why Strike Action? The question has been asked time and time again: Why does ASUU like embarking on strike action that causes disruption and dislocation in the universities?

However, ASUU is strongly convinced that if academics fail to fight the cause of university education, the fate that befell public primary and secondary schools would soon become the lot of the public university system in Nigeria.

ASUU’s advocacy on the need to stem the continued slide into rot and decay in public universities since the 1980s has fallen on deaf ears. Our experience, as a trade union, shows that successive governments in Nigeria always entered into negotiated agreements only to placate those pleading the cause – be it education, health, transportation, employment or any other issue of meaningful living.

This proclivity of the Nigerian ruling class, irrespective of which wing of the insensitive stock they belong, must be continually be tracked, engaged and resisted by all people of goodwill.

ASUU ‘s action strike, which started on 4th November, 2018, was situated in the context of accumulated records of indifference and lackadaisical attitude of Government to negotiated agreements with the Union.

At our media interaction in University of Lagos on 23rd  December, 2018, we highlighted the outstanding issues in the crisis to include the following:

– Funding for the revitalization of Public Universities based on the FGN-ASUU MoU of 2012, 2013 and the MoA  of 2017

– Reconstitution of the current Government Team to allow for a leader and Chairman of the FG-ASUU Renegotiating team who has the interest of the nation and the people at heart.

– Release of the forensic audit report on Earned Academic allowances (EAA), offsetting the outstanding balance of the EAA and mainstreaming of same into the 2018 budget.

– Payment of all arrears of shortfall in all universities that have met the verification requirements of the Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit (PICA)

– Provision of a platform by the federal government for ASUU to engage Governors on the proliferation of universities, underfunding of university education and undue interference in the affairs of the universities

– Release of PFA operational license to NUPEMCO

– Payment of EAA to loyal ASUU members at the University of Ilorin A new Memorandum of Action and Our Resolution To date, ASUU has had a total of ten (10) interactive meetings with representatives of FGN which have culminated into a Memorandum of Action of

2019.

Highlights of the MoA include the following:

In addition to the N20 billion for 2018, the sum of N25 billion only would be released in April/May 2019, after which government would resume full implementation of the MoU of 2013.

Part-payment of the outstanding arrears of the earned academic allowances; defraying the balance up to 2018 in 4 tranches within 36 months; and mainstreaming further payments of EAA into the annual budgets beginning from 2019 budget.

PICA verification and the release of the arrears of salary shortfall at the Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi, not later than 15th February 2019.

Strengthening the Consultative Committee on State-owned Universities (CCSOU), inaugurated on Monday, 28th January, 2019 to look into the issues of proliferation, underfunding and governance to consistently deliver on its mandate
Payment of the outstanding EAA arrears of all eligible staff in the University of Ilorin, especially the loyal ASUU members whose appointments were illegally terminated by today, 7th February, 2019.

Acknowledgement and appreciation of Government for facilitating the release of the final letter of approval for the granting of operational license to NUPEMCO.

Visitation to all Federal Universities would commence tentatively by 11th March, 2019.

Provision of documented guidelines on procedures and roles of parties in the process of renegotiating FGN-ASUU Agreement of 2009 which would commence not later than 18th February 2019 and end by Friday 29th March 2019.

Based on the initial proposals from Government, the Union made extensive consultations through its various organs. The final level of consultation was the meeting of the National Executive Council (NEC) which took place 6th-7th February 2019.

Minimum Wage: NLC suspends planned nationwide strike

AgegePulse Magazine

November 6, 2018Azeezat Adedigba

The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) has called off the nationwide industrial action initially scheduled to commence on November 6 to further press for workers’ demand for new national minimum wage.


The President of the NLC, Ayuba Wabba, said this on Monday night in Abuja while addressing journalists at the end of a meeting of the tripartite committee set up by government to negotiate labour’s demand.

Organised labour had threatened to commence nationwide strike on November 6 should government fail to accede to its N30,000 minimum wage demand. The federal government had offered to pay N24,000 while some state governments are even offering less.

But briefing journalists on Monday night, Mr. Wabba said, “The tripartite negotiating committee this evening concluded its assignment. Agreement has been reached and also documents have been signed. The report will be submitted to Mr. President tomorrow by 4:15pm.

“Therefore, as organised labour, we want to use this medium to thank all the tripartite partners for their understanding and importantly for concluding this very national assignment.

“And having reached this position, and also the fact that the assignment has been concluded, organised labour also decided that the proposed industrial action is hereby suspended.

“Therefore, we thought this should be communicated appropriately without also any delusion or missing information.

“As the chairperson have said, mutual agreements have been reached and this will be make public tomorrow and we must appreciate the roles that organised private sectors have actually demonstrated and the attitude brought to this process and to members of the tripartite negotiating team.”

The Chairperson, Tripartite Committee, Amma Pepple, corroborated Mr Wabba’s claim, saying her committee had reached a truce and concluded its assignment.


“We are going to present our report to Mr President tomorrow at 4:15pm and he will reveal the figure that we have recommended,” she said.

Meanwhile, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, commended members of the committee for their time and commitment to the long and tortuous negotiation processes.

“I am confident that government will give expeditious consideration of the report tomorrow by Mr President and very soon the processes will be put in place to truly actualise your recommendations so that the status of our working populace will be enhanced and they would receive appropriate and commensurate payments for the services they offer to our nation and to the different sectors of our economy,” he said.

Government and labour had been at loggerheads over the demand for a new minimum wage. Labour says the minimum wage of N18,000 is paltry and no longer acceptable.

More to come…

Premium Times

Transport to be grounded as NURTW threatens to join strike

By Tayo Aderinola

The Chairman of the Lagos State Branch of the Nigeria Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Alhaji Tajudeen Agbede, announced on Monday that the union would join the planned NLC strike if government and labour failed to resolve their differences.

“We are an affiliate of the NLC, we shall obey its directives. So we have no choice than to join the strike anytime we’re called upon to do so,” Agbede told the transport correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.

Nigerians are waiting anxiously to know the outcome of a last minute dialogue between government and organized labour over a nationwide strike, scheduled for Nov. 6 by labour unions, arising from disagreements with government over a national minimum wage.

Labour has demanded N30, 000 but the Federal Government insists it can only pay N24, 000 while state governments offered to pay N22, 500.

Public sector workers in Nigeria are among the least paid in the world, although political office holders in the country, including members of the country’s bicameral parliament earn some of the biggest wages in the world.

Also speaking on the strike, the District Manager of the Nigeria Railways Corporation, Mr Jerry Oche, said that the company would not operate if the proposed strike got underway.

“We are not going to operate if there is strike. But if there is no strike we will operate but we wish the situation is resolved before tomorrow,” Oche said.

Mr Fola Tinubu, Managing Director of Primero Transport Services Ltd., said that the company’s buses would operate strike or no strike.

“Yes, we are operating tomorrow,” Tinubu said.

Suleiman Jafo, Chairman of the Nagari Nakowa Motorcycle Owners and Riders Association, told NAN that members of the body would operate, provided movement was not restricted.

Lagos Panorama

“We are not salary earners. We eat from our daily operations,” Jafo said.

MINIMUM WAGE: Labour draws battle line with govt; says no N30,000, no votes

LEADERS of Organised Labour, workers and their civil society allies, yesterday, trooped into the major streets across the country as part of the sensitisation of workers and Nigerians for November 6, 2018 commencement date of a nationwide indefinite strike to compel government to peg a new minimum wage at N30,000, threatening “no N30,000 new minimum wage, no votes” in 2019 general elections.


Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC, and United Labour Congress of Nigeria, ULC, had declared yesterday, a day of national mourning and sensitisation of workers and Nigerians ahead of the November 6, start date of a nationwide strike.

The federal and state governments have since declined any N30,000 minimum wage agreement.

Lagos In Lagos, protests rally which kicked off from Ojuelegba Bridge, through Ikorodu Road to Gani Fewehinmi Freedom Park in Ojota, crippled activities on the ever busy road causing heaving gridlock on both sides of the road and its environs.

The protesters displayed  placards with inscriptions such as “No minimum wage, No work from November 6”, “Minimum Wage of N30, 000 not negotiable”, “Minimum wage will boost Nigerian economy’,  “Upward review of Minimum wage will not trigger inflation”, “Ngige and governors do not own Nigeria, Nigeria belongs to all workers,, “N30,000 minimum wage, no more, no less” among others.

Addressing the protesters at the Maryland roundabout and  at Ojota freedom park, leaders of the protesters and President of ULC, Joe Ajaero, declared that from November 6, it would to total war with government until the N30,000 new minimum wage was achieved.

According to him, whatever the governors meeting yesterday came out with would be of no effect unless they agreed to implement the N30,000 minimum wage, insisting that there would be no more negotiation because the Tripartite committee appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari, had finished its assignment and submitted its report to the President.

Vanguard

Labour To Begin Strike, Directs Members to Comply

The Organised Labour has called on workers from all sectors of the economy to comply with the seven days nationwide warning strike over refusal of the Federal Government to reconvene the negotiation on Minimum Wage.

Mr Ayuba Wabba, President, Nigeria Labour Congress made the call at a joint news conference organised by NLC, Trade Union Congress and United Labour Congress on Wednesday in Abuja.

The News Agency of Nigeria  recalls that the organised labour had accused the Federal Government of stalling the negotiation by failing to mention a figure as a new minimum wage for workers in the country.



The organised labour had also on September 12 issued the Federal Government a 14-day ultimatum insisting that the Tripartite Committee on the new National Minimum Wage should conclude its work within the stipulated time frame.

The Organised Labour said it would commence nationwide warning strike over the non-implementation of the new National Minimum Wage with effect from midnight of Wednesday, September 26.

According to Wabba, the action is in compliance with the decision of the various organs of the organised labour, which endorsed the 14-day ultimatum served on the Federal Government by member of the unions who were part of the negotiation committee.

“The labour further mandated its leadership to take all necessary steps to  ensure compliance with the warning strike in the first instance.
“This is to compel the government to reconvene the meeting of the committee in order to bring it to a logical conclusion.

“In compliance with this mandate, all workers in the public and private sectors at all levels across the country have been directed to join the strike.
“Industrial unions, state councils, all workers organisation and our civil society allies have been directed to step up mobilisation of their members,” he said.

He also said that public and private institutions, offices, banks, schools, public and private business premises including filling stations are to remain shut till further notice.

Wabba said that all those who mean well for the country and want to see to the success of the action should cooperate with labour, saying that the action would remain in force until further directive are given.
The NLC president noted that the justification for the new national minimum wage cannot be over argued.

“We do believe that the reasons governors find it difficult to pay the national minimum wage are lack of political will, high level of corruption, excessive cost of governance, white elephants projects and among others.

“In any case, we are commending the governors that have indicated their readiness to pay the new national minimum wage and we advise those who are not prepared to pay to go back to their state and tell the workers in their state that they would not pay.

“We, therefore, find it necessary to caution against any attempt by government at any level to blackmail workers or/and their unions because we have been patient, considerate and patriotic.
“Indeed government had to commend workers and their union for waiting patiently for two years before commencing negotiations for a new National Minimum wage.

“We advise that our disposition should not be taken for granted,’’ he said.
NAN also reports that the Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige would be meeting with Organised Labour over the nationwide warning strike.

The National Minimum Wage Committee was inaugurated in November 2017 and commenced sitting in March 2018 with a timeline to deliver on its mandate of arriving at a new national minimum wage by August/ September 2018.


(NAN) Punch