Gombe health workers suspend one week strike

One week after it declared an industrial action, Gombe State Chapter of the Joint Health Sector Union and Assembly (JOHESU) on Sunday said that it has suspended the indefinite strike.

The announcement was made by the chairman of JOHESU, Abdulsalam Yakubu, explaining that the suspension followed the signing of a memorandum of understanding with senior officials of the Gombe State Government who promised to meet their demands as soon as possible.

While addressing journalists on Sunday, Abdulsalam Yakubu said that officials of the union had an extensive meeting with the Gombe State Government led by the Deputy Governor, Dr. Manasseh Daniel Jatau and the Secretary to the Gombe State Government (SSG), Professor Ibrahim Abubakar Njodi during which all the issues were discussed and a truce reached.

State Government according to him also agreed to implement the union’s six-point demands with the Head of the State Civil Service (HoCS), Alhaji Bappayo Yahya and the State Commissioner of Health, Dr. Ahmed Mohammed Gana in attendance.

The JOHESU chairman added that the six-point demands which the Union and the State Government signed, a copy which was made available to Journalists, showed that the Government had approved the implementation of the upgrading of all its members by November 2020.

The memorandum also showed that the promotion of the members that are due was in the advanced stage while for the long-awaited promotion of primary healthcare workers, it said, that government will engage the Primary Health Care Development Agency (PHCDA) through a committee to be set up between government and the unions.

Also in the agreement signed concerning the internship programme for nurses, it said that the Head of Service had raised a memo to the state governor for his consideration.

The memorandum reads  “For the implementation of the remaining 10% of the old minimum wage to the Local Government Health Workers, all stakeholders will be engaged for implementation.

“On the restoration of the new minimum wage, the government is already in advance discussion with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC). Domestication of risk allowance due to COVID-19, the government is looking at the possibility of implementing it,” also included.

It was also agreed that “no member will be victimized for participating in the strike action,” the chairman stated, adding that they will be forced to resume the strike action if there is no implementation of the agreement by the end of November 2020.

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