The Minister of Labour, Dr. Chris Ngige, has warned striking resident doctors that they will be replaced if they fail to go back to work by Monday.
Ngige who was a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Friday stated that it is with the rights of an employer to get a replacement for workers who abandons their responsibilities, especially as it pertains to essential services.
“He will also withdraw your money and use it to pay those he has acquired during the period you were away,” he said.
“If you go to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) principles at work, it guarantees a worker the right to strike but it has consequences”.
Ngige had noted that he had invoked Section 43 of the Labour Act which states, in part, that for the period a worker withdraws his services, the government or his employers are not entitled to pay.
The Minister maintains that essential services providers which in this case applies to resident doctors are not expected to embark on strike without giving him at least 15 days notice.
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The Federal Government is shifting the responsibility being demanded by the striking doctors to states insisting that most of the concerns raised are state affairs.
The Minister of Health Dr Osagie Ehanire spoke to journalists in Abuja on Thursday stating that of the12 matters raised by the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), seven were the responsibility of state governments.
He said the doctors are expected to go back to work on Friday and discuss the issues with the state governments rather than embark on the nationwide strike as they had done.
The Labour Minister has, however, vowed to escalate the matter, should they fail to resume work by Monday, the expiration of the 1-week ultimatum he gave them.
“Next week, I will escalate it because the conciliation has failed and the law says that if conciliation fails on my own side, I can move it up.
“Avoiding the use of the word ‘sack’, Ngige said; there are other things that are permitted by law. I will invoke other things.
“Their employer has a right to replace them. It doesn’t matter what you want to term it. We can use Locum doctors or medical officers,” he said.
The strike, according to the aggrieved doctors is, however, expected to be indefinite.
