Nigerian newspapers · 1 July 2020
Health workers threaten strike over hazard allowance
Nigerian news from AbokiFX Rate
The Joint Health Sector Unions have expressed displeasure over the insistence of the Ministry of Health that some categories of health workers be paid 10 per cent of their basic salaries.
According to JOHESU, the agreement was that 50 per cent of health workers basic salaries would be paid as special hazard allowance across board. The unions have declared that they will have a meeting with the federal government today.
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However, the President of JOHESU, Josiah Biobelemoye, decried the discrimination and segregation of health workers in the payment of COVID-19 hazard allowances by the Federal Government.
Biobelemoye said, “We are very mindful of the consequences of shutting down the health system at this critical period, but we are being forced to toe this path because we entered an agreement to replace whoever is earning N5,000 as hazard allowance should be replaced with 50 per cent of the basic salary.
But today, some machinations have taken place to redefine who a health worker is. That is to say some persons are no longer health workers and so they should be paid 10 percent.
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“Some of these persons that they have discriminated against fall under the categories of health workers that are more exposed than some of the professionals that are paid 50 per cent.”
Biobelemoye warned that the unions might be forced to mobilize their members to down tools if Wednesday’s (today) meeting fails to address all its grievances.
He said, “We are hoping that by the end of the meeting, ministry of health will think better than pushing us into shutting the health system down and the ministry of health will correct its misinterpreted documents.”