President Muhammadu Buhari ordered the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab ahmed, to free up the wages of healthcare workers, including doctors, which were confiscated while the no work and no pay policy was enforced.
Labor and Employment Minister Chris Ngige confirmed this when he responded to questions from House correspondents in Abuja on Thursday.
He said the president has since approved the authorization letter to release the resident physician funds for September and October 2021.
The minister, who previously met behind closed doors with President Buhari at the Presidential Villa, said that the presidential approval for the release of wages was out of compassion and to encourage affected workers to perform better in their respective workplaces.
According to Ngige, the approval covers members of the Joint Health Services Union (JOHESU) who went on strike in 2018.
He said: “The president kindly approved that we return some funds, some salaries, that we do not pay to health workers.
“First, section 43 of the Labor Disputes Law says that when a worker goes on strike, especially those in essential services, the employer can also refuse to pay. That’s what they call the “No Work, No Pay Rule.”
“But these workers in the health sector; JOHESU doctors, pharmacists, nurses and members, we are trying to make sure we create an equitable environment for them to work.
“As a first step, the president last week ordered the Minister of Finance to release the funds of the resident doctors for September and October 2021, which were seized in accordance with the law.
“Along the same lines, the approval also covers JOHESU members who went on strike in 2018 for three months.
“After the first month, after March, when they couldn’t return, we asked them to suspend their pay. This goes hand in hand with the principles of the ILO at work.
“You have the right to strike, but the employer has the right to suspend your pay and, if possible, to use it to keep your business going by taking new hands, when possible, especially in essential services.
“So, that same money for April and May 2018, the President has again approved that the Minister of Finance reimburse them or reimburse them for compassionate reasons.
“This is based on the fact that this group of workers has shown a lot of dedication and concern for COVID-19 and that their Risk Allocation for 2021 remained as it was before.
“So out of compassion and… we agreed that they should receive this money to keep morale up. We are not free from COVID-19 and new mutants yet, we have to do everything we can to keep healthcare workers here happy.
“Along the same lines, President Buhari has also directed us to conclude discussions on the other allowances for healthcare workers so that they can enjoy them anytime from now.”
The minister announced that the meeting of the Presidential Committee on Wages and Salaries would be convened on December 17 to ratify the new salary risk structure for health workers.
He revealed that the president had also ordered the relevant agencies to conclude discussions on the other assignments for health workers to improve their quality of life level.
The minister said that efforts should be made to ensure industrial harmony in the country to allow all sectors to function well.
ASUU threat
In reaction to the threat from the University Academic Staff Union (ASUU) to resume the strike over the non-implementation of the 2020 Memorandum of Action (MoA) reached with the union, the minister said the union should “educate its members about the amount of money “the federal government had already paid them.”
He argued that ASUU had no moral justification to embark on another strike because the federal government had already “made some huge payments to meet some of their demands.”
According to him, the 2009 agreement, which is the union’s other conflict, is still at the level of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
“On the ASUU side, you will also notice that there has been a crisis in the making. ASUU and its direct employer, which is the Ministry of Education, there is a tango and tango runs through the MoA, the Memorandum of Action signed in 2020.
Advertisements
“Refreshing their minds, they went on strike last year and were at home for almost nine months and last December, the president magnanimously gave them a blanket pardon and we paid them their money for the nine months, spanning January, February of this anus.
“We paid them back almost nine months’ salary. After doing that, we also gave them a revitalization fund of N40 billion, earlier this year, for the revitalization of the university system.
“At the MoA, we agreed that they should receive another revitalization this year and last July, August. They were paid the money for the revitalization, for the university system that they were entitled to N30 billion.
“Last week, N22.127 billion was also given to the university system for the unions, the university workers system to benefit in line with the MoA that we signed in December 2020.
“The altercation that is happening now and for which ASUU is asking its union branches to vote is that many of them do not know that we have paid this amount of money.”
Ngige said he also briefed President Buhari on the bilateral agreements between Nigeria, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar on employment.
According to the minister, “Nigeria wants to formalize labor migration policy so that Nigerians from Middle Eastern countries are guaranteed a job of descent.”
He said: “So we have some emerging problems that are both of national importance and of internationalization and local importance.
“At the international level, we have some bilateral employment agreements with the Republic of Qatar and with the United Arab Emirates. The Qatari is ready for us to sign the bilateral agreements. So, I have come to inform Mr. President about that.
“We want to use it to formalize the labor migration policy, so that the Nigerians who are there, some 7,000 of them, in different spheres of work, have a decent job assured.”
(YAYA)