The Chairman, Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria, Federal Area Council, Lagos, Mr. Stephen Ibe, has suspended the executive members of its union at the Federal Medical Centre, Ebute- Metta, for embarking on what the union described as an illegal strike.
Ibe, who made this pronouncement at a press briefing in Lagos on Monday, alleged that health workers at the federal hospital took the decision without consulting with the union’s national and state body.
He accused the union’s branch executive members at FMC Ebute-Metta of misleading their members, an action he said necessitated their immediate suspension.
Health workers, under the aegis of the Joint Health Sector Unions at the hospital, have been on strike in the last six weeks to protest against non- payment of their promotion arrears and call-duty allowances from 2013 to 2014.
According to the striking workers, the Federal Government has released the monies to the hospital but the management has yet to pay their members,
Ibe faulted the position of the striking health workers, saying investigation carried out by the union after several visits to the Budget Office of the Ministry of Finance, Abuja, revealed that the Federal Government had yet to release the funds.
He directed all the striking workers to resume work within 24 hours in the interest of their patients, who had been shut out of the hospital in the last six weeks.
Ibe said, “The national executive met with President Muhammadu Buhari to iron out some issues of allowances and relativity in the sector and he said we should give him time to settle down. And we agreed that we will not go on any strike till there is a proper dialogue.
“The strike by our members in FMC is illegal because we did not call for it in the first place. But some of the executive members at the FMC, Ebute-Metta branch, gave a false information to our members that the Federal Government has paid their promotion allowance, which has not been paid according to our findings.
“They are sitting at home receiving salaries while Nigerians are dying because they have neglected their duties. This is inhuman.”
Ibe declared that the chairman of MHWN, FMC chapter, Mr. Julius Achunwa, and his Secretary, Mr. Chijioke Ejiofor, had been suspended for participating in the strike and for also inciting other members to join the industrial action.
The embattled chairman, Achunwa, said the state executive did not have any right to declare the strike illegal as the state did not give the directive in the first place.
He argued that the aggrieved workers had the right to peacefully make demands on their employers.
According to him, Ibe initially approved that the health workers at the hospital should embark on the strike for one week before he pulled out.
Achunwa said, “He said we should go on for a week and if government pays us, then we should call it off. He later told us that government has not released both the call allowance and promotion arrears to our hospital.
“Interestingly, the management in FMC later confessed to us that they have collected the call-duty allowance, which we have not collected till date. So, who is deceiving who?”
By: BUKOLA ADEBAYO
The Punch
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