The National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has declared a “total and indefinite strike action”. This was contained in a statement made available on Tuesday evening where the resident doctors also listed demands, including the immediate payment of the 2023 MRTF, the immediate release of the circular on one-for-one replacement and the payment of skipping arrears among others.
The strike action comes as a blow following an appeal not to embark on the action, made by Speaker House of Representatives, Hon. Tajudeen Abass, during a meeting with the association on Monday.
NARD President, Dr. Emeka Innocent, in a release, said the indefinite strike was at the expiration of the warning strike and different extended ultimatum by association.
According to him, even the resolutions of the conciliatory meeting chaired by the then Honourable Minister of Labour and Employment were yet to be implemented, despite the set time lines for their implementation.
The doctor’s major demands are: Immediate payment of the 2023 MRTF; Immediate release of the circular on one-for-one replacement; Payment of skipping arrears; Upward review of CONMESS in line with full salary restoration to the 2014 value of CONMESS; and Payment of the arrears of consequential adjustment of minimum to the omitted doctors.
Other major demands include: Reversal of the downgrading of the membership certificate by MDCN; Payment of MRTF, new hazard allowance, skipping and implementation of corrected CONMESS in State Tertiary Health Institutions; and Payment of omitted hazard allowance arrears.
It would be recalled that the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, had on Monday, during a meeting with the leadership of NARD appealed to the association to give him two weeks so that he can meet with President Bola Tinubu on the Association’s demands.
