Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi has appealed to doctors to suspend their strike or the government will invoke the ‘no work no pay’ rule.
National Association of Government General Medical and Dental Practitioners (NAGGMDP), on June 30, withdrew its services after the 28-day ultimatum to the government expired.
They are protesting alleged wage disparity, unpaid backlog of allowances, among others.
Fayemi spoke yesterday in Ado-Ekiti in a state broadcast. He called on the doctors to suspend their strike in the interest of the people.
He noted that while arrears of unpaid allowances could be collected, a life lost could not be reversed.
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 for an end to the strike.
“I don’t want to be put in a situation where I have to invoke the no work, no pay in Ekiti.”
Fayemi said he was more worried that workers promoted five years ago had not enjoyed the financial benefits, saying it wasn’t his style to deprive people of their legitimate entitlements.
He added: “I am pained that people who got promoted about five years ago have not enjoyed the corresponding financial benefits. These are things which give me great pain and which I am absolutely committed to assuaging their feelings”.
The governor explained that the government was unable to pay workers’ accumulated benefits due to drastic reduction in the federal allocation.
“Ekiti had consistently received from the Federation Account, an average of N3 billion in the last six months with a monthly wage bill of N2.8 billion. Aside that, our Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) has gone worse because of low crude prices and so many businesses which should pay taxes are themselves under different government support to stay afloat,” he added
