The Federal Government has resolved to enforce the “No Work No Pay” doctrine as part of measures to restore harmony into the public service in the country.

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, made this known on Wednesday at the end of the Federal Executive Council’s meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

He stated that the council’s decision to strictly observe and implement the doctrine followed the council’s acceptance of the recommendation of the report of the Technical Committee on Industrial Relation matters in the federal public service.

The committee which was chaired and co-chaired by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and the Head of Service, was inaugurated on April 26, 2016.

“The report emphasises the need for government to implement the law on “No Work No Pay”.

“The “No work No Pay” is not a rule neither is it a policy. It is a law captured in the Trade Dispute Act of the Federation, section 43, which says workers have the right to disengage their service from an employer if there is a breakdown in their discussion/negotiation.

“But, for the periods that the worker does so, the employer should not pay and those periods are to be counted as non-pensionable times in his period of work.

“So, Council today re-emphasised that law is still and it should be brought to the knowledge of workers in Nigeria especially those in the public sector,” he said.

Also addressing the correspondents on the outcome of the council’s meeting, the Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, announced that the federal government would soon ban private practice by its medical personnel including doctors nationwide.

According to the minister, the law does not allow any public officer to do anything other than farming. He said already a committee had been set up to advice government appropriately on the matter

The minister revealed that the Council also looked at the issue of residency training programme and decided that the training should last for a fixed time of seven years.

According to him, after the seven years training period, individuals should exit from the programme so that other people can come into it.

“In addition council also considered an important memo on industrial relations particularly in the public sector, that report dealt extensively with several issues but for us the health sector the most important is the need to do comprehensive job evaluation.

“So, government has decided to set up a committee that would evaluate what exactly do we do as individuals, how much should we be paid in a way that we can really pay appropriately across board through the entire country.

“Council also looked at the issue of residency training programme and decided that the training should last for a fixed time of seven years after training for seven years individuals should exit from the programme so that other people can come into the programme.

“Council has also decided to look into the issue of private practice by medical doctors in the public sector and a committee has been set up to look extensively into that issue because we want to resolve the issue of what does the law of the land state and what the rule of professional ethics say,” he said.

Adewole announced that the federal government would embark on a nationwide vaccination against yellow fever following the reported outbreak of the disease in some part of the country.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalled that Yellow fever outbreak was recently reported in Kwara, Kogi, Plateau, Abia and Edo States. (NAN)

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