The President Muhammadu Buhari administration has threatened to implement ‘no work, no pay’ rule should the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) fail to call off strike.
Mr Buhari left the country to London on Tuesday to enjoy world-class medical care, in spite of the impending strike by the medical professionals who are demanding better conditions of service.
Speaking on the development on Channels TV on Friday, labour minister Chris Ngige, a former government medical doctor himself, said the federal government would by next week commence a no work no pay sanction to compel striking doctors to resume work.
“By Tuesday, I will invite them back. If they become recalcitrant, there are other things I can do. There are weapons in the Labour Laws, I will invoke them. There is no work, no pay,” Mr Ngige said.
“Their employers have a role also to keep their business afloat, to keep patients alive. They can employ local doctors. We won’t get there but if we are going to get there, we will use that stick.”
NARD commenced an indefinite strike in demand for immediate payment of all salaries owed to all house officers, review of the current hazard allowance to 50 per cent of all health workers’ consolidated basic salaries and payment of outstanding COVID-19 inducement allowance upward.
