THE Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, has formally referred the trade dispute between the Federal Government and the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors to the National Industrial Court for arbitration.
It was gathered that NARD and the Federal Ministry of Health were notified about the development on Thursday.
The minister had given the NARD leadership till the end of work on Wednesday to convene a virtual meeting of its National Executive Committee to brief its members on the efforts of the government to call off its strike.
The instrument signed by the minister read, “Whereas, trade dispute has arisen and now exists between the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors and the Federal Ministry of Health/Federal Government and whereas, efforts to promote settlement through conciliation were on-going but had now failed.
“And considering the facts that members of NARD, who are classified as essential services workers/employees had embarked on strike on Monday, August 2, 2021, over the issues under conciliation, contrary to the provisions of section 18 of the Trade Disputes Act CAP T8, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria (LFN) 2004, after attending a Conciliation and Agreement Review meeting on July 22, 2021, and further considering that the Federal Ministry of Health claims to have and produced evidence to have met most of their demands based on the various Memorandum of Action reached during past conciliations especially that of July 22, 2021
“Now, therefore, I, Senator Dr Chris Nwabueze Ngige, the Minister of Labour and Employment, in the exercise of the powers conferred on me by section 17 of the Trades Disputes Act, CAP T8 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, hereby refer the matter for consideration, and the issues in dispute to the National Industrial Court of Nigeria for adjudication.”
The Federal Government had invoked the ‘no-work no pay’ policy.
