Resident doctors commence nationwide strike September 4

The National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) in Nigeria, has announced a nationwide strike scheduled to commence September 4, 2017.

President of the association, Dr Olusegun Olaopa, made this known in a statement released on Wednesday.

He explained that the decision followed a national executive council meeting of NARD held in Abuja on August 26.

“Neither the federal nor state governments has shown commitment to the resolution of issues at stake nor honoured previous agreements.

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“Consequent upon this, the association resolved to proceed on a total indefinite industrial action from Monday, September 4, 2017, until all these issues are permanently resolved.

“Nationwide pre-strike protests against this injustice are to hold in all our branches and states of the federation on August 30, 2017.

“All heads of tertiary health institutions who have received funding for payments to our members should be directed to pay same immediately,” it said.

The doctors are demanding for the resolution of persistent shortfalls and unpaid arrears of salaries earned in both federal and state tertiary health institutions.

Other issues are the enrolment of resident doctors into the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) since 2003, and non-implementation of adjusted House Officers’ Entry grade level equivalent since 2014.

The resident doctors are also asking for the resolution of issues around their stagnation of promotion and non-promotion of members who have met requisite criteria despite all collective bargaining agreements and circulars.