Laide Raheem, Abeokuta
The Association of Resident Doctors (ARD) at the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital (OOUTH), Sagamu, Ogun State, has announced the commencement of a three-day warning strike effective from today.
The aggrieved doctors announced the warning strike in a letter jointly signed by the ARD OOUTH President and the General Secretary of the Association, Popoola Mutiu and Osundara Tope respectively and addressed to Governor Dapo Abiodun.
They said the strike followed the alleged refusal of the state government to yield to its agitations on the need to better welfare package for its members.
According to the letter, the Association decided to down tools because of “the noncommittal response to several letters written to the government.”
They noted that the attitude of the government to the previous warning letters they had written to it, which included twenty one days and seven days ultimatums, had shown that the government was not concerned about their plights.
It described the increase in hazard allowance from N5,000 to N15,000 as a charade by the government.
The doctors, however, said their members working at the COVID-19 Isolation Centres will be excused from the strike action.
Also members of the Kogi State Chapter of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) have vowed not to accept the proposed cutting of salaries of its members and other healthcare workers by the Kogi Government.
A statement by the Chairman of the NMA in the state, Dr. Kabiru Zubair, in Lokoja yesterday, said the NMA strongly rejects any salary cut for doctors and other health care workers.
“This is because doctors in Kogi State have been getting along on half salary before now, occasioned by the non-implementation of corrected CONMESS-Consolidated Medical Salary Structure. Non-implementation of the new minimum wage of N30, 000 and its consequential adjustment, skipping, relativity, promotion and annual step increment. The average doctor working with the Kogi State Civil Service is already at a serious financial disadvantage, compared to their counterparts at federal or other states in the federation where salary adjustments have been implemented.”