#JOHESUStrike2018: What We’re Doing to End Strike – Nigerian Government
The Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole has alleged that the the Joint Health Sector Union, JOHESU, never had any agreement with the Federal Government before embarking on strike.
The Minister, who addressed newsmen after the Federal Executive Council meeting yesterday, said the union was trying to arm twist the government into implementing a non-existing agreement.
Adewole said that the union, which began an indefinite strike across the country last week Wednesday , “never had a tangible agreement with the government other than ‘minutes of meeting’ which predates the current administration.”
He said this while responding to a question on what the Federal Government was doing to halt the strike, adding that “a high level technical committee had been constituted to look into the financial demands raised by the union.”
The minister explained that the committee sat on Sunday at the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and reconvened the meeting on Monday, but no progress was made in resolving the issues.
The meeting was scheduled to continue Wednesday night.
The striking health workers said the resumption of the industrial action was predicated on alleged delay tactics and deliberate foot-dragging on the part of the Federal Government in approving the adjustment of Consolidated Health Salary Scale (CONHESS), similar to what was done for medical doctors’ Consolidated Medical Salary Scale (CONMESS) since January 2014, and also replicated with yet another approval for the same CONMESS in September, 2017 for the medical doctors.
By: John Owen Nwachukwu
Daily Post News
