Federal Govt Says ‘No Work, No Pay’ For Doctors On Strike

The federal government has ordered to implement "no work, no pay" policy on the striking members of the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD).

Chief Medical Directors and Medical Directors in the Federal Tertiary Hospitals have been directed on Thursday to pay only those doctors who are working and rest will come under no work, no pay policy.

The government accused doctors striking since July 26 of being insensitive and said, there have been various conciliatory meetings by the Federal Ministry of Health, Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment with government stakeholders, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, and the National Assembly but all of them have been proved abortive.

The statement, titled "Incessant strike action by the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors: Implementation of 'No Work, No Pay' policy of the Federal Government" was signed by Dr. Andrew Noah, who serves as the Director of Hospital Services.

Dr. Noah further directed all the authorities to register the attendance of all the doctors who are working. NARD's Secretary General named Dr. Kelechi Chikezie shared that this wasn't unexpected.

"We have seen the letter and we will meet as leaders of NARD to take a position on that," he said. "But that policy is not new to us, and we would not say we were not expecting it. However, the position of NARD will meet and take a position on it."

NARD's President Emeka Orji told PremiumTimes on Thursday night that the doctors are going to escalate the strike next week.

"Well, it's unfortunate that the federal ministry of health that has done a very poor job is trying to shift blame for their failures to other ministries and trying to say that because they don't have a substantive minister they can't do anything," he said.

He continued, "They are now developing the capacity to think that the best thing to do is to start implementing punitive measures."

Orji noted that the national leadership committee meeting will be held on Friday and National Economic Council (NEC) meeting will be held over the weekend.

"Things are going to escalate by next week, people are really angry, doctors are angry," he added. "They are angry that the government has not resolved any of the issues placed on the table and then the Ministry of Health is thinking along the line of punitive measures."

Orji emphasized that from Monday onwards there will be a "level of escalation" that government won't be able to imagine, adding that it is "unfortunate" that they have to get to this point.

Last week, NARD turned down the government's offer of increasing 25 percent salary alongside the N25,000 peculiar allowance.