WHEN two elephants fight, grass and trees suffer; so goes the received wisdom. Note: grass and trees “suffer” not “die”. But when two Honourable Ministers of Health (both of whom, almost by design, are doctors!) disagree (as they often do) with some 16,000 resident trainee doctors, the nation agonises, counting dead bodies.
According to the Honourable Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, Nigeria has lost more lives to the ongoing round of strikes by the doctors than the ruthless, ubiquitous, deadly and opportunistic Covid-19 with its new notorious Delta variant. As strike by resident doctors enters its third week, it’s time for immediate talk by all parties to address all issues in dispute. In doing so, sometime-tested principles of industrial relations must be reaffirmed for all stakeholders in the health sector.
First is the realisation that industrial or work relations are relations between humans (in this case, doctors and relevant health authority chieftains) to advance the welfare of striking doctors and invariably the wellbeing of Nigerians through good health service delivery by motivated doctors.
Mohammed bin Rashidi Al Maktoum, the Vice President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and constitutional monarch of Dubai observed (and I agree with him) that; “Human beings are the most precious assets of all nations and the most important factors in the progress of countries.” The point cannot be overstated about the primacy of human resources for national development. Between 2015 and 2020, oil prices plunged into all-time low, followed by two successive economic recessions. Buoyed by Covid lockdowns, the pressure on the naira fell its exchange rate with the dollar from N196.5 to a dollar in 2015 to N411.25 in 2021.
The concerns and outcry about falling naira value had been strident necessitating CBN’s serial interventions for rate stability. Conversely, resident doctors across the country are on strike for the fourth time since the start of the pandemic. “We are having a strike for the third time this year,” Dr Ehanire disclosed. The pains, man hour losses and above all, loss of lives are well documented.
Sadly, the frenzy, national outrage that trailed the fall of the naira value or rise in inflation figure eludes the avoidable serial loss of lives at the teaching hospitals. This shows where our heart is: with naira value, not necessary human value. Nigeria must urgently overcome the scandalous crisis of wage compensation for the valued workforce. Return on money investment is almost calculated instantaneously. Why then should “return” (read: salaries) of doctors paid monthly be delayed? Delayed payment of salaries of medical personnel such as doctors, nurses and other health workers or workers in general, amounts to wage theft; and this manifest in poor governance in both corporate and public institutions.
Pay agreements must be sacrosanct on those who freely signed them. In 2019, President Muhammadu Buhari rightly expressed presidential outrage against non-payment of salaries by some state governors. “I wonder how these governors are able to sleep knowing that they have refused to pay workers their wages. These workers have families to cater for, they pay rent, pay school fees, Hospital bills and food for their families.” he said. The President then thought and acted outside the federal box, offered serial bailouts for the states to meet their salary obligations.
I support the President to demand that state governors, ministers and MDAs must pursue Decent Work Agenda (DWA). Prompt and adequate compensation for working men and women is a critical success factor for labour motivation, productivity, labour discipline, growth and national development.
I agree with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo that the current ongoing civil service reform should be “bold and big that will make a difference” with respect to the welfare of public servants. It is also gratifying that the Head of Service of the Federation, Mrs Folashade Mejabi Yemi-Esan, had identified staff welfare, particularly remuneration and housing, as areas that require better focus and urgent intervention in the Federal Civil Service Strategy and Implementation Plan 2021-2025.
The bitter lessons of the recent days point to the attractiveness of accommodative strategy for both the doctors and health authorities. Michael Imoudu National Institute for Labour Studies (MINILS) is set to bridge the existing abysmal knowledge gap about labour market issues with respect to trade unionism, conflict resolution, strikes and strike management in critical sectors like education and health sectors.
St. Pope John Paul II once sermonised: “Ask not whether a man is useful in his work but whether the work is useful to him.” The same St John Paul II also questioned the validity of economic orthodoxy that elevates economic fundamentals (external reserves, GDP, inflation rates, etc.) above human welfare. According to him, “A just wage for the worker is the ultimate test of whether any economic system is performing justly.”
But with the best of efforts, the world of work is inherently vulnerable to occasional disputes. Happily, Nigeria again parades robust labour market institutions for collective bargaining, representation, mediation and adjudication to manage and contain inevitable crises. These are: Industrial Arbitration Panels (IAP), National Industrial Court (NIC), and the tripartite National Labour Advisory Council (NLAC), which are the bargaining councils in both private and public sectors. There are also hundreds of vibrant trade unions and associations affiliated to the NLC and TUC.
Of course there is the oldest supervising Ministry: Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, established in 1939 with rich documented records of mediation and reconciliation. President Muhammadu Buhari is the first President to appoint two ministers of labour in appreciation of the vastness and importance of labour market issues of productivity, training and capacity building, social security for all stakeholders. Both ministers; Senator Chris Igige and Mr Festus Kyamo SAN, have been commendably apprehending the crises arising from other relevant ministries, in this case health sector.
Both the Nigeria Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) and the health authorities should take advantage of the existing labour dispute structures and stop the current avoidable haemorrhage in man hours and lives in the sector. There is an urgent need for reform of the industrial relations system in the country’s health sector for sustainable peace and service delivery. I agree with Samuel Gompers when he said “Show me the country that has no strikes and I’II show you the country in which there is no liberty”. Nigeria practices robust industrial democracy. Our labour laws allow for freedom of association and unions as well as rights to collective bargaining and right to strike as sanctioned by the 1999 constitution and relevant ILO conventions Nos 87 and 98.
But these progressive labour regulatory frameworks put enormous responsibility on the stakeholders, namely employers (private and public) and workers alike. A strike is NOT a war, certainly not a nuclear mutually destructive war as we are witnessing in Nigeria. Strike is “a temporary stoppage of work by a group of employees in order to express a grievance or enforce a demand. A strike is a temporary stoppage: the workers intend that at its conclusion, they should return to the same jobs with the same terms”.
It’s time all parties suspended the existing unhelpful actions and returned to negotiations. All stakeholders in the health sector must play by the knowledge-based rules of collective bargaining, social dialogue, mediation and conciliation to prevent incessant work stoppages in hospitals with attendant costs to lives.
The bitter lessons of the recent days point to the attractiveness of accommodative strategy for both the doctors and health authorities. Michael Imoudu National Institute for Labour Studies (MINILS) is set to bridge the existing abysmal knowledge gap about labour market issues with respect to trade unionism, conflict resolution, strikes and strike management in critical sectors like education and health sectors.
Comrade Aremu mni is Director General of the Michael Imoudu National Institute for Labour Studies (MINILS), Ilorin.
