The Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria (MHWUN) has resolved to shut down government hospitals and other health facilities; if the government failed to urgently address the issue of her members who were wrongly paid 10 per cent as COVID-19 allowance.

The union on Friday warned of imminent industrial unrest in the health sector; saying that the union can no longer guarantee industrial harmony within the system if the government refused to correct the anomalies.

National President of MHWUN, Comrade Josiah Biobelemoye hinted of the imminent shut down of the system during a visit to the Chief Medical Director (CMD), University of Abuja Teaching Hospital (UATH), Prof. Ekele Bisalla.

He said the union has resolved to shut down the health system if the government didn’t correct the anomalies before the payment of the third badge of the COVID-19 allowances.

According to him, the agreement signed with the Ministry of Health on the COVID-19 allowance indicated that health workers who earlier earned N5,000 hazard allowance would be paid with 50 per cent of their basic salary.

Biobelemoye lamented that instead of implementing the agreement accordingly, the CMDs of various hospitals were misled to implementing only the Part D of the agreement, which they misunderstood to be given 10 per cent to their members consider as non-medical professionals.

He said: “There is one misinformation that has been going around about COVID-19 allowances. We enter an agreement and it is explicit, the agreement in paragraph one part A, B, C and D is very clear but the CMDs were misled to acting on only paragraph D, leaving out full aspect of paragraph A, B and C.

“This was confirmed even when we met with the Federal Ministry of Health officials, they agreed that there was an error and asked us to provide for them the lists of those that were wrongly paid 10 per cent, and we have done that with all the financial implication.

“So we want to make it open to your management team now so that the circular with the wrong information can be withdrawn and replace with the corrected one. This is because in the agreement, paragraph one A state that the N5,000 hazard allowance has been shelved and in its place, 50 per cent shall be approved for all health workers and non-health professionals.

“It also says that for those who are not serving the public, like police, military or NNPC clinics, theirs will be 40 per cent, while those who are working in COVID-19 centres will have extra 20 per cent. So we feel when you go for CMDs meeting, you can also brief them, especially for fair-minded CMDs like you to do the correction and if they fail to do that before they pay the third badge, we may not guarantee industrial harmony within the system.”

He added: “We also want them to know that an hour disharmony in the health sector at this critical time would cost this country much more than they will use to pay for correct in value. So we want fair minds like you to tell the government”.

On the misinformation that the union is asking for the same salary with medical doctors, Comrade Biobelemoye said it is far from the truth, urging the leaders in the sector to ensure actions that would promote industrial harmony in the system and not the other way round.

“Another issue that if not address the hospitals will not be peaceful is the issue of CONHESS adjustment. This has been misinterpreted especially by our brothers, I m saying this because if the leaders have done the necessary thing, maybe there won’t be any need to form another union.” (NAN)