THERE were indications yesterday that the meeting scheduled for January 7 in Abuja between the Federal Government and health workers under the aegis of the Joint Health Section Union (JOHESU) to resolve industrial may end in deadlock because some other issues have come up after the agreement for the meeting have been concluded.

The meeting was one of the conditions that led to non-declaration of proposed national strike by JOHESU members on December 28, 2013.

 

 JOHESU National President, Dr. Ayuba Wabba, told The Guardian yesterday over the phone “a lot of other issues have come up   which include the issue of surgeon general, which they (government) are trying to concede to medical doctors.”  

 

 He, however, told The Guardian that JOHESU would go into the meeting with open-mind.  

“A lot of other issues have come up and which include the issue of surgeon general which they are trying to concede to medical doctors. You will recall the senate threw out the issue of surgeon general. But we would be attending the meeting with open-mind with the hope that the issues would be resolved once and for all,” Wabba said.

 

 JOHESU is made up of five unions in health sector: The Medical and Health Workers Unions of Nigeria (MHWUN), the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives (NANNM), the Senior Staff Association of Universities, Teaching Hospitals, Research Institutions and Associated Institutions (SSAUTHRIAI), the Nigeria Union of Pharmacists, Technologists and Professions Allied to Medicine (NUPMTAM) and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educaional and Associated Institutions (NASU).

 

NUPMTAM President, Mr. Felix Kayode-Faniran, told The Guardian that some of the issues they would be discussing were issues that government had already agreed to implement since 2012.  

 

Meanwhile, striking health workers in the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) under the aegis of the Joint House Unions and Associations (JOHUA) have called on the management of the institution to expedite action on the promotion of health workers to end the on-going strike, even as LUTH management has said it has met the workers’ demands. 

Since Monday, LUTH health workers including nurses, pharmacists, radiographers, physiotherapists, medical laboratory scientists, information and health record officers, have been on strike over sundry issues bordering on allowances, working conditions and promotion. Only doctors and few senior health workers have been on duty attending to few patients on admission.   

 

  But LUTH Chief Medical Director (CMD), Prof. Akin Osibogun, told The Guardian on phone that the union’s demands have been met, as all the money meant for the allowance has been paid into the workers’ accounts. Osibogun was however silent on the issue of promotion and working condition of the workers.  “There was overtime they did and which we agreed to pay; their uniform allowance and incremental allowance. All of them were due before the end of the year. I want to tell you they have all been paid since on Monday. 

SOURCE: GUARDIAN