Hung up on strikes

It will be the fourth time recently that the workers, under Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU), have gone on strike to demand better working conditions contained in a controversial 10-point demand it put before government.Recently it reached agreement on five demands: to implement a presidential report on harmony in the health sector, promotion from CONHESS […]

It will be the fourth time recently that the workers, under Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU), have gone on strike to demand better working conditions contained in a controversial 10-point demand it put before government.
Recently it reached agreement on five demands: to implement a presidential report on harmony in the health sector, promotion from CONHESS 14 to 15, implement a 2008 report on job evaluation, review retirement age from 60 to 65 and reconstitute boards of federal teaching and specialist hospitals with “equitable representation” for JOHESU and other professional associations outside medical doctors.
That was last May. Four other issues that could not be resolved were referred to the National Industrial Court last June: ranging from wanting to skip CONHESS and contentions in the National Health Bill to allowances for consultants, shift/call duty.
This August agreements have stalled after the court ruling prompted the ministry to appeal.
Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu said hours after the strike started last Wednesday that the appeal was filed on the advice of government legal counsel and served on JOHESU because the NIC ruling asking government to negotiate with workers intent on skipping a pay level and to allow consultants appointed in error outside the ministry to continue in their position was “confusing.”
JOHESU president Ayuba Wabba said both parties had “an agreement and understanding that whatever the outcome of the NIC judgement, every party shall respect and implement the judgment.”
“It wasn’t us that took the case to NIC, it was government through the instrument of the minister of labour. You can’t shift the post in the middle of the game.”
Changed game
According to Chukwu, the major confusion in the ten-point agreement reached between both sides since May 2012 is the union’s insistence on skipping (allowing workers in line to promotion to principal officials to skip CONHESS 10) and extending the designation of consultants to others outside the medical profession in hospitals.
The ministry expected the court to decide whether government policy ruling skipping in any state establishment was right or wrong, “but the court said because they had been skipping before, what government should have done was to negotiate with them,” said Chukwu.
The court also ruled government held prerogative to designate consultants outside federal hospitals, but that “people who had been previously given that [appointment] in error or not should be allowed to enjoy their position.
On designating consultants outside federal hospitals, said the minister, the court ruled appointing consultants was a federal government prerogative but said existing appointees should be allowed to remain in position, while the move is halted.
“It is a bit confusing,” said Chukwu. “Where the court has agreed it is wrong for anybody outside the ministry of health to answer consultant, but if an error has been done by any agent of the ministry, they should allow that. It is a bit confusing too.”
The presidential report on harmony cannot also be implemented, because it lacked enough signatures to make it binding after only 13 members of the committee signed it.
That other represented interests didn’t sign meant the report would be another cause for controversy.
The Federal Executive Council after reviewing the report, according to chukwu, felt whatever decisions it took on the matter, “the others who did not sign and the interests they are representing still would not be satisfied.”
It recommended that the President himself should set up yet another committee. Until then, further traction on harmony is cold.
But JOHESU has insisted an appeal against NIC ruling-papers it said it was never served-was “not a stay on execution” to stop any movement on agreements reached.
Staying action
Teaching hospital staff thinned out through last week as the strike wore on, and more workers could join them this week. The impasse has dragged on for two years.
“You shouldn’t sign collective bargaining agreement if you know at the bottom of your heart that you are not ready” to implement them, said Wabba.
The plight of patients forced out of hospitals fast emptying takes centre stage. The unions said the country was at “this stage because of action or inaction of individuals” and insisted the minister should be “fully responsible”.
“Whatever happens in the health sector is my responsibility, because I am minister of health,” said Chukwu.
“But beyond that general sense of responsibility, I don’t see how it is my fault that they want to be on strike while a matter is in court.”