By; Abdull-Azeez Ahmed Kadir.
The National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH) , Zaria have down tooled for a three days warning strike over non-payment of outstanding emoluments and poor conditions of service.
Speaking with Liberty News via phone, the Public Relations Officer of the association, Doctor Imrana Sani Abdulazeez said the strike becomes imperative after the expiration of one week ultimatum given to the management of the hospital.
Dr. Abdulazeez said on 14th July, 2024 the association had an emergency congress where the issues were brought to the fore and discussed with the resolutions signed by the President and Secretary; Dr. Suleiman Isah Adah and Dr. Aminat Jimoh forwarded to the management of the hospital to act, but to no avail.
According to him the major issues are payment ofarrears of accoutrement allowance, where more than 60 percent of Federal Health Tertiary Institutions in the North West Zone commenced payment of, and paid a significant amount of these monies but ABUTH have not.
Other issues are; members on the GIFMIS platform were paid June 2024 salaries in percentages, yet they are being owed salary arrears from 2021. Non-implementation of the 25% CONMESS upward review to her members on the non-regular platform, and non-payment of arrears of the reviewed hazard allowance to its members on GIFMIS platform.
Others are; inefficient and surplus-to-requirement employment on the non-regular platform as a major cause of the overstretching of the GIFMIS purse, and decline in the quality of call meals.
The warning strike he said would be for initial three days from today Monday, to Wednesday.
The full congress resolutions reads; “The Congress rejects the proposed 2million naira per month payment from the overhead cost and demands that all members be paid fully the accoutrement allowance arrears.
“The Congress rejects the percentage salary payments to members on the GIFMIS platform.
“The Congress demands that her members on GIFMIS be paid remaining balance of their June salaries instantly.
“The Congress also demands that payment of percentage salaries to her members is despicable and utterly not acceptable and that this will not be condone subsequently.
“The Congress demands the implementation of the 25% CONMESS upward review to the salaries of members on the GIFMIS platform.
“The Congress demands that arrears from 2021 owed to her members on GIFMIS and all other arrears be paid instantaneously.
“The Congress demands an improvement in the quality of call food.
“In view of all these; the congress unanimously agreed to give the management of ABUTH Zaria a one week ultimatum, starting from Monday, 15th July to address the association demands.
“Failure to address these demands can’t guarantee industrial harmony”.
Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Shika in Zaria, is the leading tertiary health institution in Northern Nigeria.
