Return our 25% illegal deduction – NMA tells El-Rufai

Sola Ojo, Kaduna

The Association said, unlike others who stay at home during the lockdown in the State, frontline health workers including Doctors have been going to work as essential service providers, hence deserve their full salaries.

The Chairman and Secretary of the Association in Kaduna, Dr Stephen Akau Kache and Dr Ifeanyi Aghadi Kene in a statement on Wednesday evening noted that, Doctors in the State employment despite been the least paid in the Country, are already paying their dues in rendering inconvenient services, hence shock with the deduction without being consulted.

According to that statement, “the NMA Kaduna notes with grave dismay and disappointment the recent unilateral decision of the State government to remove 25 percent of salaries of Doctors and other healthcare workers in the employment of the State government.

“This came to us as a rude SHOCK and indeed an aberration at a time when governments world over as well as the Federal Government have been motivating healthcare professionals by providing incentives.

“We also note that the decision was taken unilaterally by the State government without recourse to the NMA as the umbrella body of all doctors who are in the frontline in Kaduna State.

“The quarantine order imposed on the State exempted healthcare workers as well as other essential workers, hence Doctors and other healthcare workers have had to continue offering services to both COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 patients within the state, implying that we have had to be going to work, even running extra schedules whereas the availability and cost of transportation has been challenging to say the least.

“We also Note that since the onset of this pandemic over 40 healthcare workers across the country have been infected with the virus in the course of their duty and many more in constant danger of being infected.

“These among others have the capacity to demoralize the rest of the workforce and clearly buttresses the need for a rather commensurate salary/ hazard allowance as well as incentives.

“As it is, Doctors in Kaduna State are the poorest paid in the country and only recently embarked on a strike action to press home their demand for improvement of their salaries which was eventually suspended out of a passionate and patriotic desire to join forces with Government and the citizens to control the Covid 19 pandemic.

“We found this decision by the Kaduna state government to be insensitive to the needs  of these healthcare workers, who are actively providing care to both COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 patients at an unprecedented heightened risk to us  and our families, and has already demoralized the already stressed health workers.

“The NMA hereby calls on the State Government to as a matter of urgency pay all health care workers the balance of 25% of their April 2020 Salaries as well as enhancing their hazard allowance by domesticating the memorandum of understanding entered into by the Federal Government with the unions in the health sector”, he recommended.