Fayemi appeals to doctors over strike

The Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, has appealed to doctors in the state to be patriotic and call off their industrial action to forestall the prospect of the government invoking the no work, no pay rule.

Gov. Fayemi, who said he felt more distraught realising that many workers who got promoted five years ago had not enjoyed financial benefits of such elevations, noted that, “It isn’t my style and intention to deprive people of their legitimate entitlements.”

• COVID-19: Ekiti govt enforces face mask, arrests 100 offenders
• Ekiti: Labour unions give 14-days strike notice

In a statewide broadcast on Wednesday, the governor called on the striking doctors, under the auspices of National Association of Government General Medical and Dental

Practitioners (NAGGMDP), to end the strike in the interest of the state.

He said, “We can always collect arrears of unpaid allowances, but a life lost cannot be reversed. That is why I call on the doctors to take the patriotic route like other health workers and the organised labour for an immediate end to the needless strike.

“I do not want to be put in a situation where I have to invoke the no work, no pay in Ekiti.”

Commending the labour leadership for being patriotic, Fayemi noted that, “Two days ago, the leadership of the organised labour comprising the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC) and the Joint Negotiation Council (JNC) also embarked on a warning strike which it immediately called off after engaging with government.”