The federal government has faulted the strike action embarked upon by resident doctors saying all their grievances were being addressed.
The Minister of Labour Chris Ngige said the doctors had no reason to go on strike because more than half of their demands have been met.
He said in a statement that the government had already addressed six out of eight demands of the striking doctors.
According to him, “Government has already addressed six out of the eight demands listed by the Association. With such a high percentage of the Association’s demands already addressed, coupled with the existence of a pending case in the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN) instituted by two Civil Society groups against NARD, the Attorney General of the Federation, and the Ministers of Health, and Labour and Employment, NARD had no reason to embark on an industrial action.”
The National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) embarked on strike on Monday.
The doctors are protesting the failure of the government to meet some of their demands made in June this year following a week-long strike action.
The association had in June protested over unpaid salaries, non-payment of hazard allowance, and a dearth of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) in hospitals, among several other reasons.
However, upon intervention by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum, Kayode Fayemi and others, the strike was called off to allow the federal and state governments time to fulfil the outstanding demands.
But the doctors said this had not been so, hence the strike embarked upon on Monday.
