Dr. Chris
Ngige, Minister of Labour and Employment has warned resident doctors to return
to work or risk losing their pay.
Dr. Chris Ngige, the Minister of Labour and Employment has stated
that if Resident Doctors failed to resume work after FG’s interventions, “no
work, no pay” would be invoked. He urged Federal Hospitals to hire local
doctors if the need arose.
The
Minister disclosed this in an interview
with Channels TV on Friday evening, discussing how soon the Resident Doctors
may resume work.
What the Minister said
“Immediately after the holidays, I will talk to them again, I have
told the accountant general’s office what to do, to make sure that the 23
institutions, not all institutions are involved, Federal Medical centres and
teaching hospitals combined, – we are trying to see how to start payment on
these second group of backlog, people who you call “over-bloated numbers on
quota.
“We have waived their quota, for now, everyone in the system, pay,
I want to know what they have done by Tuesday. By Tuesday I will invite them
back, If they become recalcitrant, there are other things I can do. There are
weapons in the Labour Laws, I will invoke them. There is “no work, no
pay,” he said.
“Their employers have a role also to keep their business afloat,
to keep patients alive. They can employ local doctors. We won’t get there but
if we are going to get there, we will use that stick,” he added.
What you should know
·
Earlier this week, the National Association of Resident Doctors
(NARD) warned that
they would embark on an indefinite strike on Thursday if the Nigerian
government failed to meet their demands.
·
Nairametrics reported that
the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, had said that the FG
would look at the proposals with the striking doctors, and fix adequate
timelines which the government would mark off as they were being executed.
·
The Minister of State for Health, Dr. Olorunnimbe Mamora, pleaded with
the striking resident doctors, promising that the government would look into
all their demands in the shortest possible time.
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