Doctors in Edo state on strike over pay dispute

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JETHRO IBILEKE/Benin

Doctors in Edo state have heeded the call of their association to begin an indefinite strike.

The strike is to protest the deduction by the state government of five days pay from the last December salaries.

The doctors’ action coincided with the threat by the State chapter of Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN), to embark on an indefinite strike over the deletion of the names of over 40 staff from the payroll in the month of December, 2013.

Governor Adams Oshiomhole had during the nationwide warning strike embarked by the NMA in which the state chapter participated, threatened to evoke the policy of “No work, No pay” on medical personnel who joined the strike, because the NMA had an issue with Federal Government and not the state.

The salary deduction prompted the leadership of the Edo NMA to call out its members to begin the indefinite strike.

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Chairman of Edo NMA, Dr. Emmanuel Ighodaro, while commenting on the issue, said the Association had written to the State government not to carry out the deduction.

Ighodaro accused the State government of “selective victimisation,”.

He noted that the government did not apply “no work, no pay” policy when lecturers at the government owned Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, joined their counterparts in the federal universities in a strike that lasted for about six months.

He added that the union would not call off the strike not until the government pay the members the full salaries.

Members of JUSUN who threatened to also go on strike indefinitely if the state government fails to restore the names of the 40 members of the Union, disclosed that the State Chief Judge has been mandated to discuss with Governor Adams Oshiomhole on the possibility of resolving the issue amicably.

A bulletin from the Union signed by K. Igbarago, and Uyi Ogierakhi, Chairman and Assistant Secretary respectively, said its members would be duly consulted before it takes any action, should the state government remain adamant on the issue.

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