Allowances: Health workers protest delay

Health workers in federal tertiary institutions have raised concerns over the non-implementation of upgraded allowances under the CONMESS and CONHESS salary structures, urging the Federal Government to intervene.

Speaking in an interview with Saturday PidomNigeria, the National Chairman of the Coalition of Healthcare Professionals in Tertiary Education Institutions, Musa Shehu, described the delays as deliberate, aimed at marginalising their members.

He alleged that some institutions had imposed conditions such as requesting pay slips from institutions that had already implemented the allowances.

Shehu said, “It is a deliberate act of marginalisation. We are health workers under the Ministry of Education. They started the implementation of those under the Ministry of Health in February.

“This is also part of the marginalisation we have been crying about. They increased the salaries of the lecturers by 40 per cent around January. By February, the minister sent the circular for the implementation to all the institutions, and they have implemented it. But ours have not been implemented.”

Earlier in a statement, the coalition stated that the management of federal universities, polytechnics and colleges of education had continued to delay implementation, citing the need for directives from regulatory bodies such as the National Universities Commission, National Board for Technical Education, and National Commission for Colleges of Education.

It noted that the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission had issued a circular on the reviewed allowances about four months ago to the Ministry of Education, but no directive had been communicated to institutions for implementation.

“We wish to draw the urgent attention of the Federal Government to the continued non-implementation of upgraded allowances under the CONMESS and CONHESS salary structures,” the statement read.

“We view the demand for pay slips and insistence on directives as malicious, unfair, and a deliberate attempt to delay progress,” the group said.

Highlighting what it described as a contradiction, the group said health workers at Adeyemi Federal University of Education had already received the upgraded shift duty allowance with arrears without waiting for directives, demonstrating that implementation was possible.

“The fact that some institutions have paid without waiting for directives shows that implementation is possible when there is the will,” it added.

It added that while academic staff benefited from swift implementation of a 40 per cent salary raise approved by the government, health workers continued to face neglect.

The coalition further expressed concern over ongoing negotiations between the government and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, warning that health workers in university medical centres might be excluded from a proposed salary increase due to differences in salary structures.