The Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU) says it will commence an
indefinite strike by 12 midnight today (Feb. 17) if the Federal Government
failed to meet members' demands.The National President
of the Medical and Health Workers Union who also doubled as JOHESU National
Chairman, Mr Biobebelemoye Josiah, disclosed this in an interview with the News
Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Abuja.
Josiah explained that members are demanding for improved working
conditions, including the implementation of skipping of Grade Level 10.According to him, JOHESU
is asking for adjustment of the 2009 CONHESS salary table and allowances as was
done for the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) in January 2014.
He described government
insensitivity to the demands as "provocative, insulting and unjust in the
worst dimension in a democratic dispensation".Josiah lamented that
members of the union were being subjected to discrimination and industrial
marginalisation in the health sector in favour of NMA members.
On the issue of skipping
of Grade level 10, he noted that rather than paying them the money government
went ahead to pay medical doctors which he claimed were not entitle to such
allowance by law.Josiah also explained
that the court ruled in their favour that they should be paid, adding that
government failed to respect the court injunction.
However, Josiah called
on the federal government to give priority attention and capture the financial
implication of the demands in this year's health sector budget.According to him, JOHESU
comprised more than 99 per cent of service deliverance in the health system,
noting that government failure to meet the demands would have negative impact
on the country's healthcare delivery.
"JOHESU members and doctors are
treated differently, even when it is not the right of doctors to earn specific
pay they accord them the pay which is part of the problems we are passing
through."This now brings
disharmony because there is no fair administration of the health system which
is part of the things that is causing disharmony and turbulence in the system,
to avoid that the President should change such act," he said.NAN reports that JOHESU
is an umbrella body of all professional and non-professional health workers,
excluding medical doctors
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