Thursday, 7 September 2017

NARD to suspend strike on Friday. If….

ABUJA – THE conciliation meeting between the Federal Government Negotiation Team and the striking National Association of Resident Doctors, NARD, yielded positive result as the union decided to suspend the nationwide indefinite strike if alert for their salary entered on or before Friday.

(l-r) Minister for Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole; Minister for Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige; Minister of State for Labour, Prof. Stephen Ochoni; President Nigerian Medical Association, Dr. Kayode Obembe and the President Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors, Onyebueze John during the meeting over the indefinite strike action of the Resident Doctors at the Conferece Hall, Ministry of Labour, Federal Secretariat, Abuja. Photo by Abayomi Adeshida
The meeting which started about 2:30pm on Wednesday lasted about twelve hours as the communique was ready about 3am Thursday.
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige who was the convener of the meeting made frantic efforts to ensure that the Resident Doctors suspended the strike, when doctors insisted that until they received alerts of the unpaid salaries, they would not suspend the strike.
Intermittently the leaders of Resident Doctors stormed out of the venue of the meeting to consult with the members on the position of the government.
Some of the aggrieved members of NARD who preferred to loiter outside instead of remaining inside the conference room where the meeting was taking place threatened to impeach the leadership if they concede to signing any agreement with the Federal Government’s Negotiation team without receiving alerts.
Following prolonged negotiation which remained inconclusive as at 1am, the parties unanimously resolved that the nationwide industrial action should be suspended as soon as the payment alert are received from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) today as promised by the Federal Government’s team

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