Health workers in Kaduna state embark on indefinite strike

Members of the Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU) in Kaduna state northern Nigeria have embarked on an indefinite strike as a result of the failure of the state government to implement the Consolidated Health Salary Structure (CONHESS) agreement it signed two years ago with the union.


Speaking to newsmen in the state capital, JOHESU Chairman, Mrs Cecilia Musa, said that the government only implemented 70 per cent of the agreement. She said the strike is meant to compel the state government to fulfil the remaining 30 percent of the agreement.

She said, meetings between officials of the union and the state government held on February 3, 2014 and February 25, 2014 ended in deadlock thus making strike the only option open to the union to push for the implementation of the balance of  30 per cent Consolidated Health Salary Structure(CONHESS)  being an unfulfilled promise by the State Government.
"All appeals to the state government to pay outstanding arrears did not yield any positive result, only for the state government to pay the medical doctors up to 90 percent of their salary structure," she said.

In response, the state's commissioner for Health, Dr Dogo Tot, has appealed to the health workers to be patient and jettison the strike plan.