Hazard Allowance: Doctors Hopeful Govt Will Avert Strike

The Federal Government has been accused by the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) of not reaching out to it over the two-weeks ultimatum declared by the union.

NARD had declared that the government to implement the new hazard allowance rate proposed in December 2021.

The union in a statement released on Sunday expressed hope that the federal government will do the needful to avert strike action.

The National Salaries, Wages and Income Commission, in a circular dated December 21, 2021, announced the approval of the new hazard allowance rate.

However, the commission is yet to implement the new rate.

The NARD had last week during a National Executive Council meeting held in Nasarawa State, called on the government to implement the new hazard allowance rate or face a strike. The union gave a two-week ultimatum.

The National Publicity Secretary, Alfa Yusuf, in an interview with Punch, said that the government is yet to reach out to the union.

Yusuf said, “The government has not called us for any official meeting yet as regards that. The association is trying its best to see how the government will address the concern and demands of the association, the strike is not what everybody wants especially in the health care sector but then, looking at the way the country is, sometimes it just makes you use your last resort to ask for what is your right that naturally should come without you even asking.

“We hope and think before the expiration of the ultimatum, the government will see the need to address all our demands and concerns so that there won’t be a need for any industrial action. There is no fixed amount the association is asking from the government but there are several demands as contained in our communiqué we want them to address.”