A group of activists under the auspices of Activists United Against Graft and Anti-People Policies, AUGAPOL, has pleaded with striking health workers to obey court order and return to work to save the country from unnecessary loss of lives.
Making the call at a briefing in Lagos, Coordinator of AUGAPOL, Mr Mark Adebayo said: “It is morally, ethically and logically wrong for the health workers to continue to hold a country of over 180 million people to ransom by their unnecessarily prolonged strike since April 17.”
Adebayo urged the Federal Government to enforce the industrial court judgment, which had hitherto mandated all members of Joint Health Sector Unions, JOHESU, to resume at their duty posts as the strike embarked upon was faulty and procedurally incorrect..
He said: “As we sit here now, in the last five minutes, a minimum of 10 Nigerian lives might have been lost as a direct consequence of the JOHESU strike. We concede the right of every worker’s union to embark on industrial action as a weapon of negotiation for better conditions of service.”
“We propose a constitutional intervention to strictly regulate industrial disputes and resolutions in a way that would not amount to loss of human lives.
“If military and police personnel are constitutionally restricted from going on strike because of the important nature of their jobs, we believe that medical personnel, who have very important roles of saving lives should also be restricted from going on strike.
“However, robust provisions should be made in the constitution for them to negotiate for better conditions of service.”
source: VANGUARD