Resident Doctors Suspend 63 Day-Old Strike

The National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has suspended a 63 day-old strike embarked by its members.

The national president of the association, Dr Godiya Ishaya made the announcement on Monday through a press statement.

Ishaya said the official resumption date for the doctors is Wednesday, October 6, 2021.

The statement said the suspension followed a through review of the development in respect of their demands.

Ishaya explained that the association met on the 1st of October,2021 with the aim of reviewing government's actions over their demand.

He added that the National Executive Council members discussed with their respective congresses and agreed to suspend the strike.

He further explained that, “We decided to officially resume on Wednesday considering the fact that some of our members who travelled had to come back and with the insecurity in the country people are afraid to travel at night.

“So to give them time to travel in the daytime and relay the information that we have suspended the strike, we decided it should be on Wednesday. Again, we were also trying to avoid some of them having problems with their immediate supervisors.”

while expressing that not all their demands was met, he said, “when we looked at the demands, there were points that have actually been significantly addressed and there were some that have been stalemated because the government was invoking the trade dispute act on us, and those part that the government were invoking the trade dispute act which says that ‘you shouldn’t pay any remuneration to any employee who has engaged in any form of lockout or strike.”

He further stated that one of their demands was for the government to enroll their members into IPPIs and pay their arrears, but the government said after enrolling them, they won't be paid because they were on strike.

Recall that the resident doctors had embarked on strike on 2nd August, 2021 as a measure to express their grievances to the government.