The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has declared total support to the indefinite strike called by the Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU).
The Congress threatened that if the flagship demand of CONHESS was not implemented, all Nigerian workers would be mobilized to join the current strike, saying “injury to one is injury to all!”
National President of the NLC, Joe Ajaero made this known in a statement he released in Abuja on Tuesday.
21st CENTURY CHRONICLE recalls that the JOHESU National Executive Committee on November 14 declared an industrial dispute with the Federal Government over non implementation of the latest Memorandum of Understanding between health unions in the country and the Federal Government, signed on 29th October 2024.
The union’s major demand is the implementation of the Consolidated Health Salary Structure (CONHESS).
Ajaero lamented that the FG was foot dragging on this important and sensitive remuneration demand by Nigerian health workers, turning a simple collective bargaining agreement into one of the most protracted labour disputes in the annals of our country.
Nigerians would recall that the Consolidated Health Salary Structure (CONHESS) and the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS) were the products of a collective bargaining endeavour in the health sector. While the CONMESS, which is mainly for medical doctors, has been implemented since January 2014, the CONHESS for other categories of health professionals has been paused and silenced by executive inaction.
He said “it is unfortunate that despite several agreements reached between the health sector unions and the Federal Government to implement CONHESS, the government has failed to deliver.”
He recalled that the Federal Ministry of Health signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with JOHESU on September 30, 2017, but the government’s failure to honour the agreement led to a strike in May 2018.
“Thereafter, the then Minister of Health promised to get former President Muhammadu Buhari’s approval for the immediate payment of the adjusted CONHESS within five weeks. Five weeks turned into seven years.
“The Joint Health Sector Unions have continued to demand the implementation of CONHESS, culminating in several strike actions. The implementation of the latest agreement with the Federal Government was initially blamed on non-constitution of the Presidential Committee on Salaries (PCS).
“Sadly, since the constitution of the PCS several months ago, there has been no serious effort to implement the CONHESS. There is no doubt that the patience of Nigerian health workers has been stretched thin.”
The NLC lamented that the FG treats signed collective bargaining agreements as worthless pieces of paper, saying “it is even alarming that the Federal Government, by its actions, shows scant regard for the welfare of health workers and, by extension, the health of millions of ordinary Nigerians.
“While the Congress is aware of a recent memo by the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare to the National Salaries Income and Wages Commission, we wish to state that the memo only confirms what the unions have already known about the insincerity of government to honour its commitment to pay CONMESS to all health workers in government employ.
“The position of the Minister of Health that the implementation of CONHESS would be subject to relativity and parity is another way of evading and obfuscating the clear provisions of a straightforward agreement reached with the government. This is akin to further application of salt to an open injury.”
Ajaero said the FG must act fast by implementing the demands of the health workers to avoid a total strike nationwide.
