No-work-no-pay policy will end impunity in civil service, says UBTH boss

The Chief Medical Director of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH), Prof. Michael Ibadin, has declared that the implementation of no-work-no- -pay policy in the civil service system would end impunity in the country.

He told newsmen, in Benin City, on Thursday, that there were no plans to sack or implement the policy on medical laboratory staff who had been on strike, since February 15.

The Chief Medical Director said after a series of meetings of concession with the striking staff in the hospital, they kept coming up with new demands thereby crippling activities.

He explained that following the low economic fortune of the county, adjustment of entry point according to their understanding couldn’t be met as there was a shortfall in the budget presented to the National Assembly for approval by the management.

According to him, “This impunity you are witnessing has to do with the fact that government has not been able to implement the policy. If government implements it, no worker will go on strike. If there are genuine reason you want to go on strike nobody will stop you but for very minor reason, things that you know are not within the preview of management you start going on strike then it is reprehensible.

“I want to use the opportunity to discountenance the insinuations that management wants to sack people. They are all senior staff; it is only the board or ministry that can sack people. The CMD doesn’t have the power to sack and their job is not threatened, we are appealing to them to come back to work. We will continue to negotiate and discuss,” he stated.

On demands of nurses, Ibadin said only the Head of Service can abrogate the position of the principal nursing officer as demanded by the nurses adding that, “Even if we are going to make serious adjustment it will come after the budget is released. Now we don’t know what the budget of the hospital is. It doesn’t make sense that we are discussing changes in personnel cost, when we don’t know what the budget is. When we went to defend the budget at the National Assembly we discovered that they gave us 6.8% less than what they gave us last year, so there is actually a drop. In the face of a drop how come we are talking of increasing the personnel cost and the budget has not been passed?”