Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, has asked the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), to halt the ongoing industrial action which commenced on Monday.
The Minister expressed that the federal government has met six out of eight demands by the association.
He went further to ask for more time from the striking doctors.
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The Minister revealed that on Wednesday, September 9, the ongoing conciliation meeting between NARD, the Federal Ministry of Health, and the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget, and National Planning will meet again.
“Recall that most of the issues listed in the demands are issues that have been under Conciliation since May 2020 that resulted in their strike in June 2019.
“The NARD leadership in three conciliatory meetings with the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) leadership in attendance can attest that out of the eight (8) demands listed after their Bauchi NEC meeting, the Federal Government via the Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) and Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning (FMoFB&NP) has already addressed about six of the demands comprehensively and satisfactorily.
“Even with the lean resources available due to the COVID-19 effect on oil output and price resulting in low revenue, the Federal Government has addressed the COVID-19 Special Hazard and Inducement Allowances for Medical and Health Workers to the extent that as of today, N20 billion has been expended by the FMoH and FMoF&NP on this allowance for April, May, and June 2020 with very little grey areas of outstanding payments to some Health Workers for June 2020.”
The resident doctors across the nation began a nationwide strike on Monday, 7th of September over the failure of the government to meet their demands.
