• Resident
doctors may end strike today
The Minister
of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, has disclosed that the Federal
Government has begun the payment of salary arrears of the striking university
teachers.
teachers.
But the
lecturers, under the aegis of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU)
insisted that the Federal Government must remit N200 billion into the
universities’ revitalisation fund before the ongoing strike can be suspended.
ASUU
leaders, who came to the negotiation table with a former President of the
union, Prof. Assisi Asobie and President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC),
Abuba Wabba, explained that the payment of their salary arrears without getting
a commitment to the payment of the N200 billion for the rehabilitation of the
universities would portray the union as being only concerned with the welfare
of its members and not the general improvement of the teaching conditions in
the institutions.
Issues in
contention include the registration of Nigerian Universities Pension Management
Company (NUPEMCO); fractionalisation of salaries in federal universities and
gross under-funding/non-funding of state universities and arrears and the
implementation of earned academic allowance; and the non-release of funds for
the revitalisation of public universities as spelt out in the 2013 Memorandum
of Understanding.
Other issues
are guidelines for the retirement benefits of professors in line with the 2009
FGN/ASUU agreement; Treasury Single Account (TSA) and withdrawal of support for
universities’ staff primary schools.
Similarly,
the members of the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) may call off
their ongoing industrial action today after an emergency congress meeting.
The
insistence of the doctors to have the evidence of the implementation of the
agreement reached with them last Thursday was responsible for the 10-hour
marathon meeting that ended yesterday morning.
The Guardian
learnt that the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) insisted that
the Federal Government should provide the evidence of implementation to avoid
the situation which the academic and non-academic staff unions of universities
found themselves.
NARD said it
was no longer interested in signing a memorandum of understanding without
physical and verifiable implementation of the agreement and would not suspend
the ongoing action.
The
agreement termed ‘Memorandum of Terms of Settlement’ addressed the six issues
raised by NARD: shortfall in salaries; failure to rectify the salary shortfall
from August 2017; failure to circularise house officers’ entry point; failure
to correct the stagnation of promotion of NARD members and properly place them
on their appropriate grade level; failure to enroll and capture NARD members on
the Integrated Personnel Payment Information System (IPPIS); and failure to
budget, deduct and remit both the employer and employees’ contributions pension
to NARD members’ Retirement Savings Account since 2013.
On the
non-payment of salaries, the meeting noted that the Office of the Accountant
General of the Federation (OAGF) did receive one Authority to Incur Expenditure
(AIE) of the sum of N13.2billion to address the shortfalls in public sector,
including the payment of the salaries of affected doctors in Federal Tertiary
Health Institutions (FTHI).
It was
agreed that payment would be made directly to the affected FTHI for doctors and
other members of staff that have been authenticated, and a soft copy would be
forwarded to the Ministries of Health and of Labour and Employment, chief
medical directors, NARD and the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA).
And
providing evidence before the NARD emergency National Executive Council (NEC)
meeting slated for today, members of the association that have been
authenticated must have received their payment on or before Friday morning.
The Federal
Government noted that the shortfalls were basically experienced by those not on
the IPPIS platform termed ‘non-regular allowances/payments’.
It was also
noted that the Office of Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF) is
currently capturing the paramilitary staff on IPPIS platform and would be ready
to deal with members of NARD by first week of October, precisely on October 4,
2017.
So, it is
expected that the 100% payment would be implemented as from October 2017, as
September salaries are already at an advanced stage of preparation. Any
shortfall that occurs is to be treated together with that of August 2017.
The role of
the Cash Management Department and PICA in the payment of the Non Regular
Allowances (Non IPPIS), and in finding a permanent solution to the issue of
salary shortfalls was acknowledged.
The meeting
resolved that the ministers of Labour and Employment, and Health, together with
the Budget Office of the Federation, and one member each of NARD and NMA would
soon discuss the matter with the ministers of Finance, and Budget and Planning.
NARD was
assured that notwithstanding IPPIS coming into existence in October, 2017, the
arrears accumulated in salary shortfalls on the Non Regular Platform would be
paid based on the old payment regime and liquidated.
On the
failure to circularise house officers’ entry point, it was noted that the
Ministry of Health National Salaries Income and Wages Commission (NSIWC) had
made a computation of the financial implications for them amounting to
approximately N422, 564,729.34 and that the monetary problem of their entry
step would be captured in the 2018 budget.
On the
failure to correct stagnation of promotion, it was concluded that while the
appeal filed by the Ministry of Health in the Appeal Court against the judgment
of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN) on skipping is pending,
skipping for doctors should, however, continue as it currently applies to other
health workers, and that hospitals that are yet to implement skipping for
doctors are to commence.
It was also
resolved that there should be no “same scale” promotion except at the terminal
grade level and in accordance with the Public Service Rules. Payment for
skipping shall stop if the Appeal Court invalidates it.
The failure
to enroll NARD members on the IPPIS was also tackled as the meeting concluded
that based on the information given by members of NARD, it was noted that only
18 federal tertiary health institutions have so far submitted their nominal
roll.
The meeting
agreed that NARD members should be on the IPPIS platform and that the CMDs as
well as the MDs should be requested by the Ministry of Health to submit their
nominal roll to the Office of the Accountant General of The Federation (OAGF)
and copy to the Ministry of Health and that of Labour and Employment on or
before September 15, 2017.
The meeting
admitted and considered a letter by the Federal Ministry of Finance on “Re:
Stoppage of Budgetary Provision And Deduction at source For the Contributory
Pension Scheme For Resident Doctors” which reaffirmed the earlier position
taken that resident doctors are entitled to the Contributory Pension Scheme.
The Federal
Government is to appeal to state governments and organisations that owe salary
shortfalls/emoluments to health workers to make genuine efforts to liquidate
them in the spirit of revamping the health care system in the country.
It was,
therefore, agreed that NARD national officers would present the outcome of the
re-negotiated Memorandum of Terms of Settlement to an emergency meeting of its
members by today with a view to suspending the strike once there is evidence of
payment of the mandate as presented to the meeting.
Both parties
agreed that members of NARD would not be victimised as a result of this strike
if suspended, after the emergency meeting.
The
agreement was signed by the NMA President, Prof. Mike Ogirima; NARD President,
Dr Onyebueze John; Minister of State, Ministry of Labour and Employment, Prof.
Stephen Ocheni; Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole; and his Labour and
Employment counterpart, Dr. Chris Ngige, among others.
The
Secretary General of NMA, Dr. Yusuf Tanko Sununu, in a telephone interview with
The Guardian yesterday said: “There were grey areas with the first MoU. We have
reached agreement on a number of issues and have signed a new MoU. What is left
is for the NARD executives to take the issues agreed on to their emergency
congress scheduled for Friday (today). If their members are okay with the
positions we have taken, then they may decide to suspend or call off the strike.”
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