Resident doctors may call off strike as FG sets up c’ttee to regularize payment

The resident doctors, under the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), may call off the ongoing strike this weekend, following an agreement reached with the government on Friday night.

The Federal Government has set up a committee to smooth out the payment of the resident doctors by removing the irregularities encountered in the process.

This is part of ongoing efforts to resolve the dispute between government and NARD which led to the ongoing industrial action by the association.

In the agreement signed by the leadership of NARD with the Federal Government, they have agreed to call off the strike.

Speaking at the end of the meeting, President of NARD, Dr Okhuaihesuyi Uyilawa, said the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Association would relay the outcome of the meeting to their members “with the hope of calling off the strike on Saturday.”

The Minister for Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, disclosed at the end of a meeting, which is an addendum to the Memorandum of Action earlier reached between the two parties on 31st March, that the committee to smooth out the payment of the resident doctors has been set up.

According to Ngige, the meeting agreed to set up the committee after noting that “the payment of the House Officers’ salaries experienced some irregularities as double payments were made to some Officers in some centres, while a few have not been paid as of date.”

Ngige said the five-man Committee was given 72 hours from Saturday, 10th April to produce a valid list of names of House Officers to the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), through the Federal Ministry of Health.

The committee members were drawn from Federsl Ministry of Health, Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN), IPPIS, Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), NARD, Committee of Chief Medical Directors (CCMDs).

He hoped that with this and other understandings reached, NARD would give “this conciliation process a chance for industrial peace by calling off the strike embarked on, on 1st April 2021.”

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The Minister further disclosed that Government was in the process of working out a better hazard allowance arrangement for all health workers in Nigeria.

According to him, in consonance with an agreement signed in July last year to review that allowance, the Presidential Committee on Salaries (PCS) had been on it all the while.

To this end, PCS would meet on Monday, 12th April, 2021 with National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC) to examine the issue, and would meet on Wednesday, 14th April with all the health sector workers – Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) and its affiliate, NARD, and Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU) and its affiliates, the Minister said.

On the issue of salary shortfall from 2014 to 2016, the Minister stated that it was agreed that NARD and CCMDs should immediately submit a list of affected institutions and personnel strength for it to be captured in the 2021 Supplementary Budget, while the arrears would run from April 2019 to December 2019,  as contained in Memorandum of Action 1 (MoA 1).

The meeting generally examined the progress made in implementing the resolutions reached at its previous meeting of Wednesday, 31 March, 2021.

According to Ngige, “This meeting started on 31st March and produced the first Memorandum of Action, which formed the basis of our business today. Those we had given assignments reported back. We also went through the tabled issues again.”

Other issues examined at the meeting are abolishment of the bench fees, Residency training allowance, group life insurance payment, and payment of residents on GIFMIS platform.

The meeting also agreed that NARD would communicate their decision to the Minister for Labour and Employment on Saturday.

NIGERIAN TRIBUNE