PUNCH
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, has described the demands of the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors in an ultimatum issued to the Federal Government as absurd.
Ngige said the government has given the doctors everything they want and their sense of entitlement is “too much.”
NARD had on Saturday given the Federal Government two weeks to meet its demands or face industrial disharmony.
The doctors are demanding an immediate increment in the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure to the tune of 200 per cent of the current gross salaries of doctors.
The doctors also want the immediate withdrawal and jettisoning of the bill seeking to compel medical and dental graduates to render five-year compulsory services in Nigeria before being granted full licences to practise.
They also want the immediate implementation of CONMESS, domestication of the Medical Residency Training Act and review of hazard allowance by all the state governments as well as private tertiary health institutions where any form of residency training is done; among others.
Speaking on Arise Television on Monday, Ngige said the doctors’ demands are absurd and have the option of leaving the country.
He said employers are entitled to keep employees’ salaries if they go on strike.
