Workers’ Rights Campaign (WRC) supports the National Association of Nigeria Nurses Federal Health Institutions trade group (NANNM-FHI) on its 15-day strike notice to the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital (FNPH), Barnawa, Kaduna state. The trade union body’s ultimatum is a response to the hospital management’s “continued victimisation, intimidation and unfair treatment” of nurses. The nurses’ union forum equally declared that it will embark on a 3-day warning strike with effect from 29 July, if the issues it raised are not addressed within the 2-week window of the ultimatum.
The issues include:
- The FNPH’s suspension of the NANNM unit chair for temporarily housing stranded student nurses on clinical posting to the hospital at the NANNM secretariat;
- Unjust demotion of the unit Public Relations Officer and two other executive officers of the NANNM unit from CONHESS Level 13 to 12 – a straightforward case of victimisation;
- Refusal by the Medical Director of the FNPH to implement the Memorandum of Understanding reached with the union and mediated by the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, after an earlier 108-day strike.
The Elegant Nurses Forum (ENF), a leading voice of rank-and-file nurses, has also drawn public attention to the hospital management’s disposition to use the State Security Service (SSS) to repress nurses and the union. ENF noted many nurses perceived SSS operatives’ actions as coercive and management-favourable during the 108-day strike.
In a press statement issued on 20 July and signed by Frances Akinjole and Bàbá Ayé, chair and secretary of the WRC, the workers’ rights advocacy group called for mass mobilisation of nurses in all federal health institutions across the country during the ultimatum.
Demands
WRC reiterates its support for the demands of NANNM-FHI and calls for:
- Immediate and unconditional reversal of the suspension of the unit chair and the demotion of other leading members of the branch;
- Full implementation of the terms of the MoU which include: right placement of newly recruited nurses on the Consolidated Health Sector Salary Scale (CONHESS), ending delays in the promotion of eligible nurses, and the payment of uniform allowances;
- Independent investigation of the institution’s management’s victimisation and intimidation of nurses, and union bursting practices;
- Immediate removal of Dr Aishatu Yushau Armiya’u as the Medical Director of FNPH and the constitution of an all-inclusive, and democratically constituted management body, which promotes teamwork and harmony of all health professionals in the hospital;
- Mass mobilisation of nurses across the country to press home the demands of NANNM-FHI, and the full support of the trade union movement and pro-labour civil society movement for the mobilisation and mass action needed to defeat the authoritarian, anti-worker regime in Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital Barnawa, once and for all.
Frances AKINJOLE Bàbá AYÉ
Chairperson, WRC Secretary, WRC
