Federal government has agreed to meet all the demands of the striking resident doctors but insisted on the no-work, no-pay policy.
Gatekeepers News reports that the Federal Government of Nigeria says the 12-point demands of the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) have been met but insisted that the enforcement of section 43 of the Trade Dispute Act during the period of the strike remains effective.
The Resident Doctors have been on strike for the past one month over “irregular payment of salaries”, among other issues.
Efforts of stakeholders, including the house of representatives, to intervene did not yield desired results.
Gatekeepers News earlier reported that the Industrial Court has restrained members of NARD from continuing with the action after the Federal Government filed a suit against the association.
The resident doctors, however, refused to discontinue the strike despite the threat of a no-work, no-pay rule issued by the government.
The Minister of Labour, Chris Ngige after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday, noted that the 12-point demands of the striking doctors have been met but insisted on implementing the no-work, no-pay, adding that the other unions in the country lost their wages when they embarked on strike.
The Minister said, “Out of their 12-point issues raised in their demands, we have done all, we have come to agreements on all, including those that even affect the Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria and medical doctors who are in academics and teaching universities.
“So, we have handled it all, the only point of disagreement now is that they said that the agreements and the memorandum of action that Section 43 of the Trade Dispute Act will not apply to them.
“That section says that when a worker withdraws his services from his employer, the employer is at liberty to withhold payment of emoluments to him and the ILO principles at work and strike said you can use that money to pay other people you have engaged in that particular period of strike.
“That’s why overseas and in other climes, you don’t see strikes getting more than three days or four days or five days, highest. They only do picketing and things like that, because people’s lives are involved.”
Ngige while commenting on the legal action instituted by the federal government, said the suit will be dropped if the resident doctors resume work.
He added that “I briefed Mr. President and we’ve agreed that they should come back to work and if they come back to work, we can take other things from there; we’ll drop the case in court, and then they will come back and get things done.”
