Health workers under the aegis of the Joint Health Workers’ Union (JOHESU) and Assembly of Healthcare Professionals (AHPA) will begin its indefinite strike by midnight should the government fail to accede to their demands.
The unions, which comprise healthcare workers, excluding medical doctors, dentists, nurses and midwives, decried the unfair treated and discrimination of its members by the government, particularly the Federal Ministry of Health, with regards to their welfare, including wages and benefit packages, among others.
JOHESU/AHPA is a conglomerate of four registered Trade Unions – Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria (MHWUN), Nigeria Union of Allied Health Professionals (NUAHP), Senior Staff Association of Universities, Teaching Hospitals Research Institutes and Associated Institutions (SSAUTHRIAI), and Non-Academic Staff Union of universities and Associated Institutions (NASU).
Recall that the unions, on May 10, gave the government 15 days to meet its demands.
The unions, while saying the Federal Ministry of Health attempted to sabotage the report of the Technical Committee on the Adjustment of Consolidated Health Salary Structure (CONHESS) as was done for Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS), called on the government to consolidate on Health Salary Structure as agreed in terms of the settlement of September 2017, which had lingered since 2014.
They also frowned at the negation of Consultant cadre for non-physician health professionals in Federal Health Institutions, and the predominant appointment of Physicians as Ministers and Chief Executive Officers of Ministry and parastatals in the health sector.
Other demands include payment of all withheld salaries to its members in Federal Medical Center in Owerri; Jos University Teaching Hospital; Lagos University Teaching Hospital and their withheld April and May 2018 salaries; speedy adjustment of retirement age from 60 to 65 years, and the exclusion of some health workers in the payment of new hazard allowance, as well as payment of COVID-19 allowance balance.
National Vice Chairman of JOHESU, Dr. Obinna Ogbonna, spoke during a protest by members of the union at the Fountain Park in Abuja. The protest is sequel to the government’s reluctance to implement the agreed signed collective agreements with the union.
Ogbonna said: “We have over the years shown patriotism that we are not strike-mongers, and that we are ready to cooperate with the government to ensure that healthcare services are not disrupted in any form.
“We who take care of the sick are not being taken care of. We don’t have that strength to continue to be marginalised and suppressed over issues that are very clear. The government has done well in some aspects to show that it meant well, but our Federal Ministry of Health, which is the mother ministry, is where the problem emanates from. When issues of welfare, court judgments, circular from Head of Service, gets to the table of the Minister of Health and his lieutenants, they find a way to put it under the carpet.
“Up till now, the Ministry of Health has not done the needful about consolidating Health Salary Structure. Instead, we got a very bad response that they have seen the recommendations of the salary and wages commission, and that if this is done, it was going to cause a form of distortion in relativity between CONMESS and CONHESS. More importantly, that there is no money to implement that. We are now asking: when did the Federal Ministry of Health become the Ministry of Finance or Budget Office?
“Our people are very angry. They feel they are not valued and are being discriminated.
“Worst still, they have already engaged our counterparts – the physicians – and reached an agreement that they would further increase their own adjusted CONHESS by a particular percentage, against reaching out to us who had been in the struggle since 2014. It is very painful. Though the government has a few days to leave, it can still ameliorate this condition because the recommendations are ready. It is just to bring them to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for approval.
“Our members have been mobilised to take the next line of action, and that is to down tools if it is not ameliorated. It is going to be an indefinite strike.”