Dr. Chris Ngige, the Minister of Labour and Employment has stated that if Resident Doctors failed to resume work after FG’s interventions, “no work, no pay” would be invoked. He urged Federal Hospitals to hire local doctors if the need arose.
The Minister disclosed this in an interview with Channels TV on Friday evening, discussing how soon the Resident Doctors may resume work.
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What the Minister said
“Immediately after the holidays, I will talk to them again, I have told the accountant general’s office what to do, to make sure that the 23 institutions, not all institutions are involved, Federal Medical centres and teaching hospitals combined, – we are trying to see how to start payment on these second group of backlog, people who you call “over-bloated numbers on quota.
“We have waived their quota, for now, everyone in the system, pay, I want to know what they have done by Tuesday. By Tuesday I will invite them back, If they become recalcitrant, there are other things I can do. There are weapons in the Labour Laws, I will invoke them. There is “no work, no pay,” he said.
“Their employers have a role also to keep their business afloat, to keep patients alive. They can employ local doctors. We won’t get there but if we are going to get there, we will use that stick,” he added.
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What you should know
- Earlier this week, the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) warned that they would embark on an indefinite strike on Thursday if the Nigerian government failed to meet their demands.
- Nairametrics reported that the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, had said that the FG would look at the proposals with the striking doctors, and fix adequate timelines which the government would mark off as they were being executed.
- The Minister of State for Health, Dr. Olorunnimbe Mamora, pleaded with the striking resident doctors, promising that the government would look into all their demands in the shortest possible time.
