By Muhammad Amaan with agency report
Following the failure of the Federal Government to meet their demands, the Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU) and Assembly of Healthcare Professionals have begun mobilising their members across the country to embark on a seven-day warning strike, beginning from midnight of October 25, 2024.
The National Secretary of JOHESU, Martin Egbanubi, disclosed this to The PUNCH on Thursday.
JOHESU is made up of the Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria, the Nigerian Union of Allied Health Professionals, the Senior Staff Association of Universities, Teaching Hospitals, Research Institutions, and Associated Institutions, and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions.
JOHESU, on October 9, 2024, notified the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof Muhammad Pate, to resume its suspended strike on October 25, if its demands were not met.
The unions suspended its strike which took place from May 19 to June 6, 2023, following the intervention of President Bola Tinubu.
The union’s demands are the adjustment of the Consolidated Health Salary Structure as was done with the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure since January 2, 2014; the implementation of a consultant cadre for pharmacists in Federal Health Institutions; the upward review in the retirement age from 60 to 65 years for health workers and 70 years for consultants, and the payment of JOHESU members in professional regulatory councils.
Others are the payment of arrears of CONHESS review, the tax waiver on healthcare workers’ allowances, the immediate payment of COVID-19 inducement hazard allowances to omitted health workers, the immediate suspension of planned establishment and activities of National Health Facility Regulatory Agency, and the withdrawal of the Drug Revolving Fund Standard Operating Procedures.
Speaking with our correspondent, Egbanubi said, “We have started mobilising our members across the country, we have put them on alert, we have told them to embark on the strike by midnight of October 25, 2024.
“We’ve not heard from the government officially, there has not been a consolation to apprehend the discourse. So, we will embark on the strike.”
