As the National Association of Resident Doctors’ strike began on Thursday, the Federal Government said it will decide the fate of the striking doctors next week.
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, on Thursday, threatened that government would decide the fate of the doctors if they refused to call off the strike before the weekend, according to PUNCH.
Checkout Magazine reported that NARD had on Sunday announced that it would begin “a total and indefinite strike” on Thursday (yesterday) if the Federal Government refused to accede to its demands.
Among others, the doctors are demanding payment of salaries of house officers and an upward review of their N5,000 hazard allowance.
Speaking, Ngige said the doctors acted in bad faith by proceeding on their strike action after the agreement they signed.
He said the government was surprised that the resident doctors could still proceed on their strike after agreements were reached on all their demands
He said, “You should be asking them (the resident doctors) what went wrong. They signed an agreement that we had with them. It is called a memorandum for action.
“We took all the items one-by-one and had an agreement on each item and we agreed to reconvene in the next four weeks to know the degree and level of implementation.
“We agreed on everything. There is no point we did not agree on. Get a copy of the agreement and see what I am talking about.”
