FG Cautions Resident Doctors Against A Strike

The National Association of Resident Doctors' (NARD) planned five-day warning strike has been advised to be postponed by the Federal Government.

Sen. Chris Ngige, Minister of Labour and Employment, issued the warning on Tuesday in Abuja, not long after receiving a letter from the NARD leadership informing him of the strike's impending date.

This was stated by Ngige in a statement that the planned strike was illegal and was signed by the ministry's director of press and public relations, Mr. Olajide Oshundun.

The upcoming strike is scheduled to start at midnight on May 16th.

Ngige, who was responding to the letter that had been sent to his office at around 5:00 PM that day, said that he had spoken with the Minister of Health, who had told him that a meeting with the resident doctors had been set for Wednesday.

Therefore, rather than going on a warning strike, which is illegal, he recommended the doctors to take advantage of the chance for social discourse with their employer.

Apparently, he "I will advise them to attend the meeting with the Minister of Health tomorrow. I will also advise them very strongly not to go on a five-day warning strike.

"There is nothing like a warning strike. A strike is a strike. If they want to take that risk, the options are there. It is their decision. They have the right to strike. You cannot deny them that right.

"But their employer has another right under Section 43 of the Trade Dispute Act, to withhold their pay for those five days. So, if the NARD has strike funds to pay their members for those five days, no problem.

"The Health Minister will instruct the teaching hospitals to employ adhoc people for those five days and they will use the money of the people who went on strike to pay the adhoc doctors.

He continued by saying that those observed at work were the ones who received payment.

"If you don't work, there will be no pay," he vowed.

Regarding the physicians' five demands, Ngige argued that the federal government lacked the authority to compel the states to domesticate the Medical Residency Training Fund (MRTF).

The federal and state governments both have the authority to enact laws on health, he continued.

The minister added that the states were free to create their own policies when they disagreed with federal policy and that it was the federal government's responsibility to determine policy.

He made the point that, if the states choose not to, the federal government cannot force them to domesticate the MRTF.

He stated that the 2023 budget included funding for the MRTF's members to be paid immediately, but that it has not yet been made available because the 2022 budget is still in effect. He added that all 2022 members had already been paid.

Ngige refuted NARD's assertion that the Federal Government failed to reimburse its members for arrears on minimum wage consequential adjustments.

All employees in the education and health sectors, as well as the defense organizations, he said, profited from the change.

The federal government cannot get involved in the subject since it is a state concern, he said, pointing out that the doctors cannot call a worldwide strike because some states owe their members money.

Furthermore, Ngige stated that because the National Assembly measure to bond doctors for five years is a private member's bill, the Federal Government, which serves as the Executive branch of government, cannot intervene in the matter.

"Besides all the government has done for doctors and other workers in the health sector, such as upward review of hazard allowances, the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) was already negotiating with the Federal Ministry of Health, National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission and the Presidential Committee on Salaries on pay rise for doctors.

"It is incongruous for student doctors to embark on strike when consultants training them were already negotiating with the Federal Government," he said.