Aggrieved NAFDAC staff embark on indefinite strike

Aggrieved staff of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) under the aegis of Medical and Health Workers’ Union of Nigeria (MHWUN), on Friday in Lagos embarked on an indefinite strike to press home their demand for better conditions of service, which they had long been agitating for.

Both Comrade Attah Isa Ibrahim and Comrade Anzaku Peter Joseph, state and branch chairmen respectively, while addressing workers at the Agency’s operational headquarters at Isolo, said the action became necessary in view of the failure of management to yield to its request for improved welfare of its members.

Already, a communiqué issued at the end of emergency meeting of Joint Health Sector Union JOHESU, to which NAFDAC staff also belong, warned “that no member of the union should go to work under the guise of being management staff or force any member working under them to work.”

Comrade Joseph, while addressing aggrieved workers, pointed out that the grievances arose due to failure of the authorities to review workers’ allowances based on Consolidated NAFDAC Allowance Structure as agreed with the Union, failure to constitute a Board for the Agency since the last one was dissolved in 2015 and the need to ensure that whoever is serving in an acting capacity as related to the office of director-general of the Agency in particular must not stay in such position beyond six months.

“Today is an historic moment, NAFDAC staff is on indefinite strike, if JOHESU (Joint Health Sector Union) resumes, we are not resuming. If you have anywhere to spend your holiday, go there and rest, you can travel with your loved ones. The era of impunity in NAFDAC is gone, we cannot continue to tolerate it,” he said.

On his part, the Branch chairman of MHWUN, Isa Ibrahim, insisted that the acting Director General of the Agency, Mrs Yetunde Oni must proceed on her mandatory retirement, having clocked age 60 on Thursday, September 21, 2017, charging the relevant authorities to appoint a substantive DG within the shortest time possible.

Also, Secretary of MHWUN, Ibrahim Bashir, said, in a release made available to journalists that the renewed industrial action was a follow up to the suspended strike of November 2016, which was declared to seek redress on the issues of stagnation of staff of NAFDAC, consolidated salary structure, skipping of CONRAISS 10 and other grades, review of job specific allowance, among other things.

He decried the Federal Government’s tardiness to reconstitute the Governing Board of the Agency, lamenting that the delay was already affecting the operational efficiency of the organisation.

“In line with its mandate and objectives of safeguarding public health, union frown at the deliberate attempt by the ministry and the Federal Government in delaying the appointment of a Governing Board for the Agency. This has caused untold hardship in budget implementation, late release of fund for project execution, delay in purchase of laboratory equipment and consumables, as decisions have to be routed through the officials of Federal Ministry of Health for submission to Finance Ministry for approval,” Bashir said.