The Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU) in the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Yola, held a protest rally Tuesday, complaining about the withholding of their April and May 2018 salaries by the Federal Government on account of the members’ strike action.
JOHESU had held a nationwide strike in April and May last year, following which the Federal Government withheld their salaries, but the Yola FMC chapter of JOHESU said Tuesday that the Federal Government was selective by withholding the salaries of members, as it had not done so with the others of its workers who went on strike.
The FMC Yola JOHESU Chairman, Comrade Muhammed Abba, asked, “Why implement that policy where we are concerned when you don’t use it against others? ASUU has just suspended their strike after three months. Why did the Federal Government not apply it to ASUU?”
Muhammed Abba who spoke to newsmen on the side of the protest by JOHESU, added, “It is only in the health sector that the policy was implemented. Some people say it is a government policy, but why selectively implement it against JOHESU? We take exception to selective implementation of a government policy. More importantly, to withhold the salary of civil servants for two months, you know that it can’t be easy for the affected persons.”
JOHESU is also protesting FG’s ‘indifference’ over upward adjustment of members’ salary scale and headship of hospital departments which the joint unions say places members at a disadvantage.
JOHESU’s membership include the National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives (NANNM), Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria (MHWUN), Nigeria Union of Allied Health Professionals (NUAHP), and Senior Staff Association of University Teaching Hospitals, Research Institutes and Associated Institutions (SSAUTHRIAI).
Muhammed Abba, in response to a question, said the warning protest by JOHESU, which started at the FMC Yola on Tuesday and would end on Wednesday, would not affect patients as patients are free to come to the hospital and be attended to even within the few hours of the protest rally in which JOHESU members merely hold placards and match through some streets of the FMC complex.
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