Striking health workers under the aegis of the Joint Health Workers’ Union (JOHESU) and Assembly of Healthcare Professionals (AHPA) will on Monday, June 5, 2023, hold their National Executive Council (NEC) meeting to resolve issues bordering on ongoing strike.
Lafiya360 reports that the meeting will be attended by the unions’ NEC, where the offers of the Federal Government will be deliberated upon, with the view of either calling off the strike or continuing in it, with further negotiations.
The unions on Thursday met with the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, the Federal Ministry of Health, and other relevant stakeholders, to discuss their sundry demands.
It would be recalled that on May 25, 2023, members of the JOHESU and AHPA embarked on an indefinite strike following the failure of the government to address their demands.
According to the National Vice Chairman of JOHESU, Dr. Obinna Ogbonna, “Our NEC will meet on Monday. What the Federal Government has brought to the negotiation table will be discussed by our members. Based on the outcome of the meeting, a decision will be reached on the next line of action for our members.”
Dr. Ogbonna was, however, silent about the details of the offers by the government, stating that the press would be intimated abouto it soon.
The JOHESU and AHPA, which comprise healthcare workers, excluding medical doctors, dentists, nurses and midwives, complained about the unfair treatment and discrimination of its members by the Federal Ministry of Health, with regards to their welfare, including wages and benefit packages, among others.
Their demands includes the immediate approval and implementation of the Technical Committee report on Consolidated Health Salary Structure (CONHESS) adjustment by the Federal Government; payment and inculcation of peculiar allowances to health workers under the aegis of JOHESU/AHPA; immediate payment of the omission and Shortfall in the COVID-19 hazard/inducement allowances of affected health workers in the Federal Health Institutions and recognition of health workers in non-core hospital facilities in the payment of new hazard allowance.
Others are: the immediate and unconditional implementation of the Pharmacist Consultant cadre, unconditional payment of all withheld salaries of Federal Medical Centre, Owerri, Jos University Teaching Hospital, and the Lagos University Teaching Hospital and April and May, 2018 salaries of members at NOFIC, Azare; and the speedy implementation of the increase in retirement age from 60 to 65 years, and 70 years for Consultants in the health professions.
Lafiya360 reports that doctors and nurses in public hospitals continue to be overworked and overwhelmed, as they are grossly understaffed due to the ongoing health workers’ strike. They mostly give priority attention to patients with conditions requiring emergency care.