Resident doctors’ strike continues as union backs out of MoU

Hope of ending a three-week strike by residents doctors today (Sunday) or tomorrow has been dashed as the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors has rejected the new memorandum of understanding presented to them by the Federal Government.

Speaking with journalists on Sunday after a closed-door meeting with the FG’s representatives in Abuja, the President of NARD, Okhuaihesuyi Uyilawa, said the association did not sign the MoU as a result of an undisclosed clause.

“We rejected the MoU; we didn’t sign it because we feel we are being punished for the failures of those in government,” he said.

He said the nationwide strike would continue and the association would proceed with the court case.

On August 1, resident doctors embarked on a strike over the alleged failure of the federal government to implement an agreement bordering on salaries and allowances.

Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, had dragged the association before the national industrial court over the strike.

The Nigeria Medical Association on Friday led the resident doctors to a meeting summoned at the instance of President Muhammadu Buhari to resolve the nationwide strike.

He, however, added that NARD leadership has to present the new MoU to its members before he could sign the document.

On his part, Ngige said that all other unions in the negotiation including the NMA and the Medical and Dental Consultants of Nigeria had signed the new agreement.

The minister noted that the meeting did not discuss the issue of ‘No Work No Pay’, but that all parties at the meeting agreed to an out-of-court settlement.

He added that the Federal Government would begin implementation of the MoU on Monday.

“The meeting agreed that we need to rest this matter. Therefore, the Budget Office of the federation should start from the 2021 service vote to start paying. And if we have any leftover, we roll it to the 2022,” Ngige said.

The minister also said, “Coming to hazard allowance, everybody agreed that the discussion is still ongoing and therefore government wants to finish it up.

”We agreed with the NMA position to us that they don’t want to discuss holistically anymore as an association and that they have their own peculiarities that are not the same with other health workers.

“We are going to do two meetings, one for NMA and affiliates and one for JOHESU. But we are taking the meetings concurrently so that we don’t run into troubled quarters. We are starting next week.”