The Federal Government must adhere to certain requirements before the ongoing strike can be suspended, according to the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD).  ,
Mohammed Suleiman, the president of Nard, argued on Thursday’s morning program on Channel Television that only full implementation of the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) would lead to progress.
The federal government must reinstate “Logoja 5,” release the implementation professional allowance table, pay promotion arrears, and pay outstanding salary arrears, make sure all conciliation decisions are made accurately, pay the specialist allowance to conmess 5 officers, and resolve the membership certificate issue.
The President stated that there are 19 demands for the Association, noting that there have already been three conciliation sessions with the federal government.
He claimed that both parties agreed on timelines for all 19 issues, stating that “there is nothing new on the table” because the issues have persisted for years and have repeatedly been violated.
There are 19 demands, according to the federal government, and of those 19 demands, the federal government has met with the federal government for three conciliations. There is nothing new on the table because these discussions have been ongoing for years, and previous agreements have been broken by the government.
According to Dr. Suleiman, Nard discussed paybacks for federal government medical officers who had been promoted up until 2018 but still haven’t received payment.
He noted that the minister of finance, who had promised to send the arrears to the association, “I can’t pay right away, but I can create a payment plan,” both sides agreed that the arrears would be compiled by Friday. He pointed out that Nard was unaware that the compilation was even finished as of Thursday.
We talked about medical officer promotions that were in arrears. These doctors who serve in the federal government have been promoted from 2018 to 2018, with no promotions due.
We agreed that these promotion arrears will be calculated, that they will be compile as at Friday last week, and that the finance minister will be able to negotiate a payment plan after one of the conciliations. As of Friday, we made the concession that was agreed to occur. Although it is Thursday, we are still unsure whether the compilation has been completed, nor whether it was even sent to the Ministry of Finance for their own input so that we can work through it.
He claimed that some doctors are owed between three and twenty months in various institutions in the area of pay arrears. Contrary to the assurances and agreement made by Finance Minister Wale Edun, he confirmed that the arrears had been completed and verified by Friday, but they have not been forwarded to the Ministry of Finance or the Budget Office for the next stage of processing.
The issues with the salary arrears are what some doctors in various institutions have between three and twenty months of salary arrears. We also agreed that the compilation would be finished on Friday, which the ministry of finance and the budget office have confirmed but that neither the ministry of finance nor the budget office have been notified. According to the misnister of finance chief wale edun, who was very willing to provide us with a pay plan that hasn’t been implemented, “we have agreed that this will be done.”
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Dr. Suleiman described the professional allowance table dispute as “an injustice of over seven years,” noting that the practice has been changed since 2014 to include adjustments to allowances as well.
He claimed that only 45 to 60% of doctors’ allowances are currently received. and added that delays persist despite the fact that calculations and tables have been completed and that everyone has agreed they should be made available and put into use.
We with the federal government agreed that the professional allowance table was an injustice of more than seven years. since 2014, the review of the basic salary. As I’m chatting with you right now, doctors only receive about 45 to 60 percent of their paychecks. Everyone agreed that the calculations had been made at the final salary that was given. You start to hear a lot of stories once the tables have been set up, they are released, and they are put into practice.
He claimed that the federal government had already called a national executive council meeting ahead of the release of the tables and other agreed items, but that another two weeks later that the document would be “required” by the president.
In light of the release of some of these tables and agreements, we even called a national executive council meeting, but we were informed that an MoU would be signed by all of us, and that it would only be available for another two weeks. What’s the plan then? The MoU was signed by us. We suspended the strike, and within two weeks, we were hearing yet another story.
Source: Channels TV
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