On Wednesday, members of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control section of the Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria began an indefinite strike.
This information was provided in an interview with The Newsmen by the union’s secretary, Mr. Ayodeji Adetoboye.
He added that the Abuja branch and other areas of the country did not receive the notice for the strike in a timely manner, in contrast to certain reports that claimed it was just in Lagos and the other South-West states.
“There was a misinformation, which was the reason people in Abuja went to work today, Wednesday. This has been resolved. We do not have a divided union in NAFDAC,” he said.
Adetoboye stated that during an emergency meeting with the Federal Area Council, Lagos and NAFDAC Branch of MHWUN, a motion was made that the union should immediately begin an indefinite strike action until all of its demands are realised.
According to him, the union has a number of demands, including that “The congress frowned at the prolonged inaction on the payment of promotion arrears for 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021; the congress agreed that action is long overdue as all measures to resolve the matter have not received management cooperation.
“The issue of additional allowances was discussed and the members of congress rejected the continued delay in the approval by National Salaries Income and Wages Commission. It was noted that since the reduction of NAFDAC salary in year 2013 all efforts to resolve the issue to ameliorate the suffering of staff members have ended on the table of NSIWC.
“The congress raised concerns on the issue of GMP inspection and GMP training that has been hijacked by some microscopic few. Members of congress were unanimous in rebuking management on the delay of the severance allowance and call for an immediate action to save these poor retirees.
“The congress frowned at the recent reversal of the skipping by management as evident in the invitation for promotion during the last promotion exercise. The congress demands immediate reversal to status quo.”
Sayo Akintola, a resident media consultant for NAFDAC, also addressed the newsmen, stating that the strike would be brief since management will address the union’s complaints.
“NAFDAC does not owe salary. To the best of my knowledge, as part of what they are demanding as of the last time this issue came up, was allowances, so it’s not salary.
“I can’t really say why it has not been paid but you know in an organisation as big as NAFDAC, there is usually a process so probably there is a process it has to go through but I know the last time the issue came up, they actually paid everything and that was why the whole thing died down then and they continued with negotiation with some other issues,” he said.
