Date Published: 09/05/11

No Work, No Pay, Delta tells Striking Doctors

THE Delta State Government has threatened to enforce the policy of no work, no pay to all categories of doctors in government-owned hospitals currently on strike under the aegis of Association of Government General Medical and Dental Practitioners.

Besides, any doctor whose appointment is yet to be confirmed but partakes in the strike action, will have his or her appointment with the Hospital Management Board (HMB) terminated.

The Commissioner for Health, Dr. Joseph Otumara gave the warning when he visited Central Hospitals in Warri, Agbor, Ekpan and Orerokpe to personally take count of doctors not on their duty posts.

While speaking to journalists on the strike action, Otumara said the issues leading to the industrial action by doctors under the HMB have been sufficiently and satisfactorily addressed, and wondered why they still decided to embark on strike.

He described the strike as not only uncalled for, but an abuse of industrial process, saying doctors who are expected by their calling and professional ethics to save lives are now involved in acts capable of causing avoidable pain and deaths of the citizenry.

Vexed by what they described as the unwholesome taxation policy of the government, the doctors under the umbrella of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) recently embarked on strike but the commissioner said that the issue of tax affected all categories of workers in the state.

According to him, the present tax policy of Personal Income Tax Act of 1963 and amended in 2004, is a law that is operational in all states of the country, adding that its implementation in Delta State was not an exception.

On the issue of the Contributory Pension Scheme raised by the striking doctors,  Otumara said that every deduction taken from workers’ salaries, including those in HMB, was in tact, saying that from the meeting he had in his office last Thursday with all stakeholders, there was no controversy surrounding the issue.