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 PUNCH 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.
People in Abuja arrived at their places of employment today, Wednesday, due to a misinformation. It's been resolved now. The NAFDAC union is not divided, he claimed.
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 realized.
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 National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission's prolonged delay in approving new allowances was debated, and the members of Congress rejected it. It was highlighted that since the NAFDAC salary cut in 2013, all attempts to find a solution to ease the pain of staff members had come to a standstill on the table of NSIWC.
"The congress expressed worries about the GMP inspection and training issue, which has been subverted by a tiny minority. Congressmen unanimously criticized management for delaying the severance allowance and demanded quick action to help these struggling retirees.
The recent reversal of management's stance, which was visible in the invitation for promotion during the most recent promotion exercise, was frowned upon by the congress. The Congress calls for a swift change in the current quo.
The walkout will be brief since management would address the union's complaints, according to Sayo Akintola, a resident media consultant for NAFDAC, who also spoke to The PUNCH.
“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.
