The Federal Government has set up a committee to successfully deal with the payment of Resident Doctors by reducing the irregularities encountered in the process, just as the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), has suspended its strike which commenced on April 1.
This is part of ongoing efforts to resolve the dispute between government and NARD, which led to the ongoing industrial action by the Association.
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Confirming the suspension of strike, NARD President, Uyilawa Okhuaihesuyi, told Journalists that the decision followed some good comebacks from the negotiations with the government.
He however gave the government four weeks ultimatum to meet their sundry demands.
“The strike has been suspended.
The government gave us some good comebacks from our negotiations. We had an emergency National Executive Council (NEC) meeting an hour ago, and we decided to suspend the strike for four weeks.”
The decision to suspend the strike comes after the signing of a new agreement with the federal government, concerning issues raised in NARD’s 13-point demand.
Accordingly, the Minister for Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, at the end of a meeting between the representatives of the Federal Government side and the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), which is an addendum to the Memorandum of Action reached between the parties on 31st March, said that both parties at the meeting agreed to set up the committee after noting that “the payment of the
House Officers’ salaries experienced some irregularities as double payments were made to some Officers in some centres, while a few have not been paid as of date”.
Ngige said the five-man Committee was given 72 hours from Saturday, April 10, to produce a valid list of names of House Officers to the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), through the Federal Ministry of Health.
According to DailyTimes reports, the committee members were drawn from Federsl Ministry of Health, Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN), IPPIS, Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), NARD, Committee of Chief Medical Directors (CCMDs).
The Minister further disclosed that Government was in the process of working out a better hazard allowance arrangement for all health workers in Nigeria.
According to him, in consonance with an
the agreement signed in July last year to review the hazard allowance, the Presidential Committee on Salaries (PCS) had been on it all the while.
“To this end, PCS would meet on Monday (today), April 12, with National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC) to examine the issue, and would meet on Wednesday, April 14, with all the health sector workers – Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) and its affiliate, NARD, and Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU) and its affiliates, where they will present their position papers.” The Minister said.
On salary shortfall from 2014 to 2016, the Minister said that it was agreed that NARD and CCMDs should immediately submit a list of affected institutions and personnel strength for it to be captured in the 2021 Supplementary Budget, while the arrears would run from April 2019 to December
2019, as contained in Memorandum of Action 1 (MoA 1).
The meeting generally examined the progress made in implementing the resolutions reached at its previous meeting of Wednesday, March 31.
According to Ngige, “This meeting started on March 31 and produced the first Memorandum of Action, which formed the basis of our business today.
“Those we had given assignments reported back. We also went through the tabled issues again.”
Other issues examined at the meeting are abolishment of the bench fees, Residency training allowance, group life insurance payment, and payment of residents on the GIFMIS platform.
The meeting also agreed that NARD would communicate their decision to the Minister for Labour and Employment before 12 noon, April 10.