The Joint Health Sector Union and Assembly of Health Care Professionals (JOHESU) Bauchi state chapter, has called off the indefinite strike which began from Thursday, August 6th, 2020.
This was announced by the secretary of JOHESU in the state , Comrade Usman Danturaki, on Friday in Bauchi, at the conference Hall of the Ministry of Finance, saying further negotiations were still ongoing to address the issues once and for all.
Danturaki said, indefinite strike followed the unilateral deductions made by the state government in its June and July 2020 salaries.
The secretary of the union disclosed that the health workers embarked on the strike after several efforts to draw the attention of the state government to the deduction.
“Having been convinced with the steps taken by the government prior to the commencement of the strike, coupled with ardent desire to meet our demands, JOHESU have resolved to suspend the strike action with immediate effect so as to pave way for further negotiations to continue on Monday August 10, 2020 where agreement on major issues shall be reached and signed accordingly,” the JOHESU Secretary, said.
Earlier, in his remarks, the Commissioner for Finance, and Chairman Implementation Committee on new salary administration, Alhaji Umaru Sanda Adamu, said that the biggest challenges of the administration was over bloated workforce that gulps state revenues.
Adamu said to address the problem, the state government embarked on staff auditing and discreet investigation by setting up two Committees to produce a credible payroll.
“The revelations from their findings so far are startling and had confirmed the initial fears of government that indeed , there are serious infractions on government payroll at both the state and local governments with ample evidence of the existence of ghost workers, fraudulent payment allowances to ineligible staff, multiple salary payments,” among others, said Adamu
On the issue of implementing Consolidated Health Salary Structure (COHESS) to health workers, the commissioner explained that the cabinet committee discussed with the JOHESU union leadership in company with the leadership of other labour unions in June when the problem was noticed.
“The committee after investigation, discovered that 20 per cent CONHESS said to have been removed from entitled workers salaries in the month of June 2020 was not done deliberately but was mistakenly removed as at the time of preparation of their payroll,” he said.
According to him, the development, which also occurred with the July 2020 salaries of health workers was also not deliberate but caused by miscommunication
“As I speak to you now, the payments have commenced. The union leadership is fully aware of this development,” the Commissioner said.
