• Writes President Jonathan

ORGANISED labour yesterday served a June 5 ultimatum on the Federal Government to fully implement agreements reached at a reconciliatory meeting with aggrieved stakeholders in the health sector.

The organised labour, made up of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) said barring a 100 percent implementation plan by June 5, 2014, they would deploy all needed resources to support the indefinite strike action of health workers that was suspended on January 25, 2014.

In an open letter to President Goodluck Jonathan, signed by NLC President, Abdulwahed Omar and his TUC counterpart, Bobboi Bala Kaigama, they stated that, “Our members have been patient for far too long for the Federal Government to resolve the mess created by the Federal Ministry of Health.”

“Your Excellency, we, therefore, put you on notice that if at the next meeting scheduled for June 5, 2014 to reassess the level of implementation by the government, a 100 percent implementation plan is not in place, then we will support the indefinite strike action of health workers,” the statement read in part.

It would be recalled that the aggrieved unions under the Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU) and Assembly of Healthcare Professional Associations (AHPA) in a letter dated May 2, 2014 gave a 15-day ultimatum to the government to resume the suspended industrial action by its members after four months of pre-verifications including dialogue, which according to them was not productive.

A conciliatory meeting was consequently held at the instance of the Minister of Labour and Productivity. The parties reached a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) after extensive deliberations on the issues in dispute.

The parties had agreed on resolutions which addressed lopsidedness and unlawful constitution of Boards of Management of various tertiary health institutions; increase in retirement age of health workers from 60 to 65 years and promotion of officers from CONHESS 14 to 15 as Directors, implementation of skipping of CONHESS 10 and payment of its accrued arrears.

Others are circularization of proper placement of intern Medical Laboratory Scientists on CONHESS 8; abolition of the post of Deputy Chief Medical Advisory Committee (CMAC); adjustment of collective bargaining agreement of 2009 as it was done for Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) in the same sector in January, 2014 and Advertorial for appointment of CMDs/MDs should no longer be skewed in favour of one professional group but made open to all competent and qualified health professionals.

Organised labour in their letter to the president stated that in view of the above conclusions, the trade unions under JOHESU/AHPA agreed to suspend their ultimatum to embark on an industrial action as stated in a letter cited earlier.

They added: “The legitimate struggle for fair industrial treatment has perennially been truncated by the incumbent Health Minister, Prof. C. O. Chukwu using the full apparatus of the bureaucracy of the Federal Ministry of Health in the current dispensation.

“Amongst numerous aberrations, the Federal Ministry of Health continues to frustrate peaceable efforts of other prominent officials of the Federal Government by actively endorsing the position of some stakeholders who are his kith and kin against others through its challenge of the judgment of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN) in favour of JOHESU at the Court of Appeal.

“While the Federal Government is negotiating on moral grounds that in view of the national mood (abduction of Chibok girls and Nyanya bomb blast victims), health workers should not go on strike, the Health Minister and the Federal Ministry of Health continue to consolidate in the legal arena,” the statement read in part.

In a related development, President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), Olumide Akintayo observed that the smooth dialogue with government had dragged on for over five months now because of the “intransigence of the Health Minister, Prof. C. O. Chukwu, who continues to give unlawful directives which suit the dictates of members of the medical profession he belongs to.”

He said PSN appreciates efforts of the Labour Minister, Emeka Wogu and the Secretary to Government of the Federation, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, to put an end to this crisis, which led to the MoU signed with the Health Sector Unions and Professional Associations on May 13, 2014.

“While the Federal Ministry of Labour and the Office of the Secretary to Government of the Federation appear to mean well, it is obvious that the Health Minister and the legal department of the Federal Ministry of Health are bent on reducing this ‘productive dialogue’ to a monologue.

“This is because the Federal Ministry of Health, which ordinarily should modulate the interests of all major professional groups and unions in the health sector has continued to pursue legal options with government apparatus and paraphernalia to champion the interest of the NMA, a professional body which Prof. Chukwu belongs to and which he is bent on lording over other stakeholders who account for over 95 per cent of the workforce in healthcare.

“The Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria in the light of the many excesses of Prof. Chukwu who carries on like a sacred cow calls on Organised Labour to ensure that if after the review meeting of June 5, 2014 all areas of the MoU signed on May 13, 2014 are not adhered to, then health workers who have been patient to almost a point of stupidity will be mobilised by the full force of labour to commence its earlier suspended strike of January 25 2014,” Akintayo said.