Ilorin- A union leader, Mr Odebiyi Kolawole, on Wednesday urged the Federal Government to end the nationwide strike embarked upon by health workers to save the sector from collapse.
Kolawole, who is the chairman of Joint Health Workers Union, University of llorin Teaching Hospital (UITH) chapter, made the plea while speaking with newsmen in Ilorin.
He urged the Federal Government to implement the agreement it earlier reached with the union as a lasting solution to the three-week old strike.
Kolawole appealed to the Federal Government to address the existing discrimination between health workers and medical doctors.
He said that the government was giving preferential treatment to the doctors without adequate and commensurate consideration of the welfare of other health workers.
According to him, the government has failed to abide by the collective bargaining initiative it reached with both health workers and medical doctors by approving a new salary structure for the doctors alone.
The union leader said that the action was unfortunate and detrimental to the much desired transformation of the failing health sector.
He said that the ongoing strike was a fallout of the government’s inability to ensure promotion of his members, failure to approve a new salary structure, and refusal to pay arrears of over three years.
Kolawole said the union was open to dialogue with the government as long as it was ready to do the right thing.
He called for a complete restructuring of the health system so that every worker would be carried along in the scheme of things. (NAN)
