The Nigerian Government says it will meet with representatives of health sector workers unions in a fortnight to harmonise their proposals on the new hazard allowance for workers in Government health establishments.
Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige disclosed this on Tuesday night in Abuja, after a meeting between the Presidential Committee on Salaries (PCS), relevant Federal Government stakeholders and Health Sector professional associations and trade unions.
Briefing Journalists after the meeting, Dr Ngige said progress has been made in the discussions between the Federal Government and the two umbrella bodies of the health workers, the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) and Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU).
According to the Minister, the meeting succeeded in making the health workers to appreciate the plight of the Government, caused by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the country’s crude oil based mono economy.
“We are making progress. At least one of the parties has agreed to the Government recommendation. We urged the other party to go and dot the i’s, and cross the t’s in their own recommendation.
“Government will also go back and see what we can do within the ambit of the proposals being given by them.
“We have agreed to reconvene in a fortnight to harmonise the proposals,” the Minister said.
Ngige however, did not make the amount public , insisting that that will be done when all the parties fine-tune it, adding that even those in agreement with the Government proposal, still had a little problem with their compartmentalization of their health workers into junior and senior workers.
“We need to leave them to get back to their constituents and agree on that one, so that we can harmonise our proposals.
“We are discussing with two unions or associations. So, in Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) you allow them to give their own position as it suits their members. The members are not same. The only thing is that you have both workers in the hospital.”
He explained that the Federal Government was dealing with two umbrella unions or associations, the NMA representing the trio of National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), consultants and MDCAN, and JOHESU representing the nurses and midwives, laboratory scientists association, pharmacists association, radiographers and physiotherapists.
The meeting which was held at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa Abuja was convened in furtherance of the discussions on the proposed new hazard allowance for health workers in Government health establishments.
Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 and the attendant problems the pandemic exposed the world to, especially the health sector, the Nigerian government resolved on the need to review upward the five thousand naira paid to health workers as hazard allowance.
At the peak of the pandemic last year, the Nigerian government unilaterally reviewed upward the hazard allowance it paid to health workers for three months as one of the measures to motivate them, with the promise that the statutory five thousand naira hazard allowance will be reviewed upward.
