The leadership of the Joint Health Sector Union is set to meet by next week to decide their next course of action against the Federal Government’s failure to fulfill its demand for an upward adjustment of the Consolidated Health Salary Structure.
JOHESU, a coalition of four registered trade unions in the health sector, including the Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria and the Nigerian Union of Allied Health Professionals, had earlier suspended its strike in June 2023, after meeting with President Bola Tinubu.
However, almost a year after, the call for the adjustment of the Consolidated Health Salary Structure, which is the salary structure for health workers in pharmacy, medical laboratory science, among others, had yet to be attended to by the Federal Government but on Tuesday the union threatened to resume its suspended strike if the Federal Government failed to take any positive action regarding the salary structure.
Speaking with Saturday PUNCH, a former president of the union, Dr Obinna Ogbonna, hinted that members of the union, who were already aggrieved, had started calling for the resumption of their suspended strike almost a year ago.
He said, “The new leadership will be meeting by next week but whatever they now decide on, because there is a lot of agitation from members calling for industrial action.
“So, it will not be in my place to decide now whether there will be industrial action or not since I have handed over to the new leadership. But the members are asking for it (strike).
“The leaders are to provide leadership but when the NEC meets, the final decision lies in the hand of the NEC because it’s almost a year now that the new president emerged. He intervened in the strike, and we respected him but our president was just coming.
“We gave him the ability to settle down but the problem is that he’s been keeping quiet on the CONHESS for a couple of months after one year in office. It is not too good.”