Imported User:
Dr Nicholas Baamlong , the Chairman of the FCT branch of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), has said that the sacking of 778 doctors in Lagos State is a violation of rights.
“This is an abuse and violation of the rights of doctors working with the Lagos State Government,” Baamlong said at a press conference in Abuja on Friday.
The chairman said the state government had agreed to the Federal Government’s approved 2009 Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS) but had on several occasions failed to implement it.
He said all efforts by medical and dental employees in Lagos under the guidance of the Lagos Medical Guild (LMG) to resolve the dispute between September 2009 and August 2010 failed.
The chairman said after a 14-week period of industrial action, the state government agreed to pay CONMESS without any disadvantage to the medical and dental practitioners in 2011.
He said the government later released a circular that demoted doctors across all grade levels to steps one and two and excluded grade levels 10 and 12 from earning teaching allowance.
Baamlong said it was in response to the breach of the agreement that the LMG resumed its suspended industrial action in February 2011.
The chairman said a former NMA president and the former governor of Lagos State, Chief Bola Tinubu, brokered peace that led to the suspension of the strike but a year after, the state had yet to implement the agreement.
Baamlong also said in its final attempt to bring change, the guild decided to embark on a three-day warning strike in which time a considerable level of medical services were still rendered.
He said that in spite of several attempts by the union to intervene, government officials had not shown any serious interest toward resolving the matter.
He said the NMA condemned the actions of the state government, particularly ``the casualisation of the medical profession, the destruction of hierarchical structure and the use of armed security to occupy hospitals.
“We condemn the insensitivity shown by the state government and urge it to quickly address this issue to save the health sector from total collapse in the state,” he added.
