The minister of labour and productivity, Chris Ngige, has threatened to implement ‘no work, no pay’ sanction should the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) fail to call off strike.
The medical body commenced an indefinite strike on Thursday, demanding the 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.
Their industrial action came while President Muhammadu Buhari flew to faraway London to seek medical attention.
Speaking on the development on Channels TV on Friday, Mr 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.
