The Edo State
chapter of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) yesterday insisted
that the state government must pay its members the full Consolidated
Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS) before it will reverse its decision
to embark on a full scale strike when its one week warning strike
expires.
The state chairman
of the Association, Philip Ugbodaga said that they want the governor to
implement in full the new salary structure .”We cannot take anything
less than 100 per cent of the new scale. The governor promised us in
December 2009 during our end of year programme that he will implement as
soon as the federal government begins implementing and the federal
government started that since January last year so practically, we are
one year behind in the implementation of the salary scheme. States like
Kogi, Lagos, Ekiti, Delta and many others have started full
implementation of the scheme so we want the Edo State government to do
the same here,” he said.
However, another
group called the Concerned Edo Sons in a separate statement yesterday
said that the strike action was to embarrass the state governor, Adams
Oshiomhole’s government.
It was also learnt
that a meeting called by the leadership of the Nigerian Labour Congress
(NLC) to resolve the issues last Friday could not yield any good result.
Reports from various
hospitals across the state showed that the five days warning strike was
already having its toll on patients who could not afford going to
private hospitals.
Mr Ugbodaga in a
statement over the weekend had called on his colleagues in both private
and public health institutions across the state to proceed on the
warning strike,
He said Edo State government has failed to utilise the two weeks
grace period given to it by the state executive council of the NMA to
completely adhere with the full implementation of CONMESS.
