SAN FRANCISCO, September 27, (THEWILL) – The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, on Tuesday advised aggrieved labour unions to stop taking their cases to President Muhammadu Buhari because the incumbent president will not negotiate with them.
Speaking at the commencement of talks with the leadership of striking Joint Health Sector Unions and Assembly of Health Care Professionals, JOHESU, he also warned labour against routing their grievance through the offices of the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, and Acting Secretary to Government of the Federation, SGF.
“President Jonathan negotiated with some people; they know why he chose to do so, but this president won’t negotiate with any worker,” he said, adding that the president appointed the ministers to represent him, therefore cannot discuss with any union.
Ngige explained that workers, as employees of government, should always bring their grievances to his ministry; which represents their employer.
He expressed the concern of the federal government over the spate of industrial actions by essential service providers, especially in the health sector, like doctors, nurses, laboratory technologists and so on, which, according to him, was not in line with the International Labour Organisation, ILO, and the country’s labour laws.
His words: “Nobody notified me of any strike action in accordance with the laws of the land; instead, letters were written to the Vice President and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation. It was those letters that were referred to me and it took days to get to me.
“I deserve to get notification, not as Senator Chris Ngige, but as the Minister of Labour and Employment and the Chief Conciliator of the Federation. We should threat issues of labour with all the seriousness they deserve. We like to listen to workers because they are the weaker ones in the labour chain.”
The minister noted that any other sector can go on strike and no life would be lost.
“For instance, if the teacher goes on strike and the school is closed down, the lost period could be spread into their holiday. But once health workers refuse to do what they are supposed to do, it becomes ominous.”
He assured of government’s readiness to address the demands of JOHESU such as adjustment of CONHESS salary, victimisation of their members in the Federal Medical Centre, FMC, Owerri, Imo State, for fighting corruption, scale to scale promotion, payment of skipping relativity and promotion arrears and review of retirement age from 60 to 65 as done for the tertiary education sector, among others.
In his remarks, President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Ayuba Wabba, commended the minister for his proactive approach in trying to arrest the ongoing JOHESU strike, but called for the strengthening of collective bargaining process to forestall frequent strike.
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