……JOHESU strike unnecessary, illegal ,FG Says
The Joint Health Workers Union (JOHESU) on Monday said the federal government should attend to its demands with the same seriousness it attached to those of the National Association of Resident Doctors.
JOHESU President, Dr. Biobelomoye Josiah, made the remarks in an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily as its members commenced a nationwide strike on Monday.
The residents doctors, under NARD, also downed tools last week but called it off days after coming to an agreement with federal government representatives.
JOHESU, which is the umbrella body of health workers’ unions and associations in the country, said its demanded merited such urgent attention, too.
“We gave a 15-day notice that was to expire by Sunday, midnight,” Josiah said. “They reached out to us on Thursday. They waited until Thursday.
“When we went into the discussions, rather than go in with open minds, they started with intimidation. They threatened us, and at the end of the day, they followed up with insincerity, gross insincerity and dishonesty on their part of discussions.
“We took it back to our NEC. And the expanded NEC reviewed everything and found out that there was nothing tangible.”
The JOHESU chief said one of its demands include the correction of COVID-19 allowances being paid to its members.
“They are still paying the faulty 10 percent to our members, when the agreement said they should be paying 50 percent,” he said. “Paragraph 1a of the agreement was explicit – whoever was earning N5,000, replace that N5,000 with 50 percent of COVID allowance.”
Other than the COVID allowance, Josiah added that its members have been punished for previous strikes actions with the implementation of the federal government’s ‘no work, no pay’.
“JOHESU has been peaceful for two years,” he said. “We waited for them to solve all these problems and they refused.
“Even court judgement has said they should implement in four weeks. This judgement was passed in March 2019. And we waited patiently and they decided that our patience is foolishness, our patriotism is stupidity.
“So JOHESU members have decided that even if it is going to be their death, they would rather be off again, because the caregiver must be alive to also give his care.”
Dr. Josiah was in combative mood on Monday during his interview. He lamented the poor attention the union has received from federal government representatives and vowed that union leaders were ready to go to prison for their stand.
“When there is gross bias exhibited . . . others have gone on strike during the climax of COVID in this country,” he said. “They never say they have apprehended any strike, they discussed and then they gave six over eight. We reduced our demands from over 15 to five; and then we said okay, just give three. And they are still playing games with it.
“On the first of July, we agreed with them to correct this COVID-19 allowances, they refused to correct it, and then our consolidated salary adjustment, which they entered that agreement in 2017, to be implemented in five weeks; and today, it’s three years now. Have they done it? No.
“If conciliation fails, what next? If conciliation comes with dishonesty, what next? If a conciliator is biased, what next? We have given a 15-day ultimatum and the legal books they are referring to, says for those in essential services, that you must give 15 days before you withdraw services. And that is exactly what we have done. And within the 15 days,
“They threatened us with no work, no pay, with court orders. JOHESU leaders are ready to be in prison. I think the courts are not stupid.
“Some of the reasons we went on strike for in 2018, structural decay, the management of the system, was to make the system better for Nigerians. And they punished us for that. So it’s not just because of our allowances. We are in a family; we make up 95 percent of the family.”
However the Federal Government has described the Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU) strike which commence on Sunday midnight as “unnecessary, ill-timed and illegal”.
Sen. Chris Ngige, Minister of Labour and Employment, said this in a statement signed by Mr Charles Akpan, Deputy Director, Press and Public Relations, in the ministry, on Sunday in Abuja.
The union had, in a letter addressed to Ngige, said it would go ahead with the strike scheduled to commence in the midnight of Sunday.
It cited Federal Government’s inability to meet its demand as the reason for its action.
Ngige said that the Federal Government had directed that the various unions in the health sector operating under the umbrella of JOHESU should not to go ahead with the strike.
He urged the leadership of the various unions that made up JOHESU to have a rethink on the illegal strike by putting the welfare of their patients and Nigeria above every other consideration.
He noted that issues in the trade dispute between JOHESU and the Ministry of Health were being discussed.
According to him, going ahead with the action would be illegal as it is in clear breach of the ILO Principles and Conventions on Strike and Section 18 of the Trades Disputes Act, Cap T8, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.
“Parties in disputes are expected not to arm-twist, intimidate or foist helplessness on the other party while negotiations are ongoing as per Sections 8 and 18 the of Trade Dispute Act (TDA) 2004.
“This bars any strike when the matters are before a Conciliator and undergoing conciliation.
“Any strike now is inimical to an equable settlement of the dispute, bearing in mind especially that this is a grave period of a pandemic where the Federal Government has spent about N20 billion to pay April/May 2020 hazard allowance.
“An additional N8.9 billion for June 2020 COVID-19 hazard and inducement allowances has also been approved to all categories of health workers that are mainly JOHESU members.
“Besides, all health workers on essential services -Pharmacists, Nurses/Midwives, Radiographers as members of JOHESU – are statutorily barred from strikes during emergencies, by both the ILO Statutes and the Trade Dispute Act 2004.
“Such an action while the nation battles the COVID-19 emergency accentuates its illegality, as it will compound and aggravate the challenges in health services, causing further risk and deaths to the sick in hospitals across the country,” he said.
He noted that COVID-19 pandemic had been declared as a situation of “Acute National Health crisis” by both the ILO and World Health Organisation (WHO), whose Statutes and regulations had forbidden strike for the period.
He also added that the withdrawal of services was clearly unnecessary as the Federal Government had demonstrated capacity in her amelioration of age-long challenges in the health sector.
Ngige, however, said that government had addressed most of the demands of the union which included provision of enough Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), approving N29 billion for payments of allowances and also spending N9.3billion as premium for Group Life Insurance for medical and health workers.
He also noted that during the last negotiation, the meeting resolved all the issues raised by JOHESU against the Ministry of Health.
“This is with exception to the issue of CONHESS adjustment which is before the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN).
“Same goes for the issue of refund of the two months 2018 April/May salaries caught up in the ‘No Work No Pay’ principle when JOHESU was on a long strike of over two months, which was also a substrata of the strike issue at the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN) of 2018,” he said.
He noted that the union and the Ministry of Health were advised to resolve the issues and report back in four weeks.
