Fashola Blasts Striking Doctors.
A ‘no work, no pay’ policy will be applied to striking doctors whose strike has entered the third day,
Lagos state governor, Babatunde Fashola, announced on Wednesday at the
commissioning of the newly built cardiac and renal centre at Gbagada
General Hospital, Lagos.
He disclosed that the state government did not owe any doctors
their legitimately earned salaries, but the decision not to pay striking
workers is not a policy of his government “but one that was enacted by a
Federal Act”. Fashola also explained that the said salary which the
doctors were demanding was not earned and so not legitimate.
“Doctors should understand that the issue about doctors who go on strike is not my choice. It is a provision of the Trade Dispute Act. It prescribes very clearly that if people go on strike, they will not be entitled to pay.
“They must also understand that the period when they went on strike was when we had Ebola. That was when we needed them most.
“That was the period when doctors who have no stake in this country, foreigners, came to serve. Those who own this country did not serve and so, we did not owe them for any period they went on strike,” Fashola was quoted as saying by Daily Independent.
The governor, however, insisted that“the doctors know we have paid them for January and February and by the policy on ground, we will pay them for March up to the period that they stopped working.”
He pleaded with the striking doctors to return to work or “otherwise, we will be compelled again to apply the law. They just cannot get paid for work that they did not do.”
Fashola revealed why the cardiac and renal centre was built. He said: “The turning point was when we exported President Yar’Adua to a Saudi Arabia hospital to manage a kidney ailment.
“It was a low point for us because we have it on good authority that the Saudi hospital was built by Nigerian doctors who left the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) in the 80s.
“The honourable Commissioner for Health informed me that there were up to 20,000 Nigerian medical personnel, who were living and working overseas.
“Many of them, whom I met on my travels, complained that they wanted to come home and practise but there was no hospital comparable to where they were accustomed to working. I told them, we will do something.”
Fashola also claimed he was very fulfilled and happy to take his exit from government because he has succeeded in delivering all electoral promises made to the people in eight years.
Lagos state is not the only state in Nigeria to have government workers on strike. Workers in Osun and Edo state have begun a strike over unpaid salaries as well.
It is believed that the federal government is withholding state and ministerial allocations with rumours persisting that the government is broke.
Some states like Nasarawa have gone as far as borrowing huge sums of money to pay government workers salaries.
source:naij.com
“Doctors should understand that the issue about doctors who go on strike is not my choice. It is a provision of the Trade Dispute Act. It prescribes very clearly that if people go on strike, they will not be entitled to pay.
“They must also understand that the period when they went on strike was when we had Ebola. That was when we needed them most.
“That was the period when doctors who have no stake in this country, foreigners, came to serve. Those who own this country did not serve and so, we did not owe them for any period they went on strike,” Fashola was quoted as saying by Daily Independent.
The governor, however, insisted that“the doctors know we have paid them for January and February and by the policy on ground, we will pay them for March up to the period that they stopped working.”
He pleaded with the striking doctors to return to work or “otherwise, we will be compelled again to apply the law. They just cannot get paid for work that they did not do.”
Fashola revealed why the cardiac and renal centre was built. He said: “The turning point was when we exported President Yar’Adua to a Saudi Arabia hospital to manage a kidney ailment.
“It was a low point for us because we have it on good authority that the Saudi hospital was built by Nigerian doctors who left the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) in the 80s.
“The honourable Commissioner for Health informed me that there were up to 20,000 Nigerian medical personnel, who were living and working overseas.
“Many of them, whom I met on my travels, complained that they wanted to come home and practise but there was no hospital comparable to where they were accustomed to working. I told them, we will do something.”
Fashola also claimed he was very fulfilled and happy to take his exit from government because he has succeeded in delivering all electoral promises made to the people in eight years.
Lagos state is not the only state in Nigeria to have government workers on strike. Workers in Osun and Edo state have begun a strike over unpaid salaries as well.
It is believed that the federal government is withholding state and ministerial allocations with rumours persisting that the government is broke.
Some states like Nasarawa have gone as far as borrowing huge sums of money to pay government workers salaries.
source:naij.com
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