The Federal Government is being reported to have reached an agreement with the aggrieved health workers in the country. The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, disclosed this to journalists at the end of a five-hour conciliation meeting with the leadership of Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU) on Tuesday in Abuja.
JOHESU had on September 3 issued a 15-day ultimatum to the federal government to meet its demands or face an indefinite strike.
Ngige said both parties reached an understanding at the meeting, adding that a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) would be signed next week.
He said the parties discussed in a fraternal way and reached an understanding on the enhancement of hazard allowance, review of retirement age from 60 to 65 years, the arrears of the consequential adjustment of the national minimum wage and other issues in the dispute.
The minister said the government and JOHESU also reached an agreement on the upward adjustment of Consolidated Health Salary Structure (CONHESS) as done with Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS).
Ngige said: “Based on the previous discussion, we delivered to them (JOHESU) the financial implication of what is due to them and they promised to get back to their members and report back to us.
“On the other hand, the government is meeting with the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) next week for their separate discussion on hazard allowance. Already the federal government has budgeted the sum of N37.5 billion for this.
“The issue was resolved to the satisfaction of all of us. The government is not delaying the hazard allowance as some people want the public to believe.
”Since the past six months, the government has been making concerted efforts to push the new hazard allowance into effect, which we are doing now but for disagreement between NMA and JOHESU.”