Health workers, under the umbrella of the Joint Health Workers Unions, have written to the Ministry of Labour and Employment, the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, and the Ministry of Finance, demanding an upward adjustment of the Consolidated Health Salary Structure.

JOHESU is a coalition of four registered trade unions in the health sector.

The constituting unions are the Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria; the Nigerian Union of Allied Health Professionals; the Senior Staff Association of Universities, Teaching Hospitals and Associated Institutions; and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities and Associated Institutions.

The Consolidated Health Salary Structure is the salary structure for health workers in pharmacy, medical laboratory science, among others.

The union, on Tuesday, said it might resume its suspended strike if positive action was not taken by the Federal Government regarding the salary structure.

The health workers in May last year embarked on a strike but suspended it after day 12 on June 5, 2023, following a meeting with President Bola Tinubu.

Speaking in an interview with The PUNCH on Tuesday, the National Secretary of JOHESU, Martins Egbanubi, said the union was following up with the necessary ministries, departments, and agencies, and the Presidency on the matter, but there was no positive feedback yet.

“This has been the situation since last year June when we suspended our strike. The Presidential Committee on Salaries, led by the Ministers of Finance, Labour, and Director-General of the Budget Office, has been constituted, but we have not been able to get any convincing feedback from them.

“This is making our members restless, especially now that the minimum wage is being decided. We want the conversation to precede the discussion on minimum wage. “We have written to the Ministry of Labour and Employment, the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, and the Ministry of Finance.

“If the demands are not met, there is a likelihood of strike action because it was suspended upon the intervention of Mr President to honour him on the basis that he just came in but we have given him enough time. So, the likelihood of resumption of the suspended strike is possible.”

Also, the former National President of JOHESU, Dr Obinna Ogbonna, said members of the unions were agitated over the salary structure.

“One thing about new leadership is that most of the time, the members expect them to showcase one industrial action or the other to show that they are capable, and now they are pushing them to declare an industrial dispute because the final approval for CONHESS implementation is still lying with the PCS.

“The matter is on the committee’s table because the Salary and Wages Commission has done its calculations of the amount it will cost to adjust the CONHESS; theirs is to take it up because the committee was inaugurated four months ago.”

Ogbonna emphasised that the delay in the implementation of the adjusted CONHESS was causing distress and agitations among JOHESU members.

“We can only hold the members for a little while, and we do not want an industrial crisis in the health sector. So, we call on the PCS to expedite the implementation of the calculated amount for CONHESS. We should not expect industrial action to push them to implement it.

“When we met with the President last year, he promised that he would put up the necessary mercenary to do the needful but it is almost one year now, nothing has been done. But we hold him by his words, and we hope the needful will be done within a few days or weeks,” he stated.