THE PROBLEM
The unilateral mass sack of 788 medical doctors in the Lagos State Public Service by the Lagos State government is a direct assault on Nigeria’s robust labour market laws and practices.

All labour market actors namely government, employers and trade unions should impress on Lagos State government and striking medical doctors to urgently return to social dialogue and address the demands of the doctors and the plights of agonizing patients.

The demands of the doctors in particular and the medical workers in general for improved conditions of service and full implementation of the Consolidated Medical Salary Scale (CONMESS) call for social dialogue. Social terrorism either in form of shock therapy mass sack of doctors or ill-informed endless frequent strike actions on the part of the medical doctors is not a substitute for genuine social dialogue in the world of work.

IMPACT ASSESSMENT
The result has been a devastation of medical services of public hospitals in Lagos. The recent unfortunate development in Lagos shows that development agenda in Lagos or Nigeria as a whole is not sustainable without robust sensitive labour/human resources policies on the part of government. Lagos has recorded tremendous achievements in physical infrastructure. But Fashola’s government like some states’ governments suffers human resources management deficit as manifested in regular work stoppages and acrimonies in world of work.

Sadly, in Lagos, we are burying some patients who could have lived not because there are no hospitals, but precisely because the government that built the very hospitals lack the capacity to engage the working people namely; doctors and nurses who are expected to ensure service delivery. There are labour market institutions namely; the Industrial Arbitration Panel (IAP) and the National Industrial Court (NIC) that should handle industrial disputes. Interestingly, the Lagos doctors’ strike is already in industrial court and all parties must obey the rule of law.

EMBRACE DIALOGUE
We call on all parties to embrace meaningful dialogue and urgently return back to negotiation.

The striking doctors should appreciate that strike is not an end itself but only a means to an end that must be applied with an eye on resolution of the problem and sensitivity to the plight of the public especially poor patients who cannot afford the prohibitive bill of a private hospital service. The end in this case is the general welfare of the doctors in Lagos and service delivery to poor patients of Lagos, not the unacceptable and illegal mass sack.

Issa Aremu mni
GENERAL SECRETARY NUTGTWN
AND
VICE PRESIDENT, NIGERIA LABOUR CONGRESS