YENAGOA — ACTIVITIES at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Yenagoa have been paralyzed as doctors in the hospital have embarked on an indefinite strike in protest over what they described as the selective treatment of staff by management. The action of the doctors is coming barely two weeks after the suspension of the one-month strike by the Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria; the Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria and the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives of the Centre following the intervention of Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha.
Part of the grouse of the twenty-five striking doctors of the Centre, the only federal government referral institution in the predominantly riverine state, Vanguard gathered, was the lopsided payment of the 22 per cent salary arrears and the continued refusal of the Centre's Medical Director to pay the salaries of its members' salaries (resident doctors) who sometime ago went on strike and the application of the “no work no pay” rule while concession was given to the other workers who recently called off their one-month strike.
Although the doctors confirmed that the management paid the 22 per cent arrears on October 20, 2004, they alleged disparity stressing that it paid only five months to medical consultants, seven months to resident doctors and ten months to the other categories of workers in the hospital.
It was gathered that the Centre's Medical Director's efforts last week to starve off the doctors’ strike by holding a meeting with them ended in a stalemate with the doctors unanimously insisting that the same number of months of 22 per cent arrears be paid to all categories of workers as was done in the other 52 federal hospitals.
The doctors also argued that if the “no work, no pay” rule was not going to be applied to the other unions of the hospital, then it will only be fair that the withheld salaries of the resident doctors be paid before or at the same time the September 2004 salaries of the other workers (who had just resumed from their strike action) is being paid.
Besides, they are demanding that the sums (between N15,000-N37,000) deducted from their July salaries and tagged “pension deductions” be refunded as was done contrary to the provisions of the Pension Reform Act of 2004.
According to the doctors, they were not on strike and wondered why as at the date of the meeting (October 19, 2004) their August and September 2004 salaries were still unpaid thereby causing them untold hardship.
The doctors also reminded the management of the Nigerian Medical Association standing order that any Centre where the 22 per cent arrears is paid with the exclusion of the doctors, that all doctors in such institutions should embark on strike without notice.
They however resolved to call off the strike if the following demands are met: "That the balance of 3-5 months of the 22 per cent arrears be paid; the withheld salaries of the resident doctors be paid and that the pension over deductions effected in July 2004 as reflected in their pay slips be refunded as well as their yearly incremental stepping/ promotion arrears be paid.
