Nurses Stop Shift Duty Over Non-payment Of Allowances

Nurses in Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH), have stopped shift duties in protest against the deduction of two months shift allowances by the hospital’s management.

The Nurses, it was learnt currently resume work at 7 a.m. and close at 3 p.m. on working days, and stay from work at weekends.

“We used to run three shifts – morning, afternoon and night. But we have resolved to suspend the shifts. We have resolved to all converge for morning duty and close at the same time,” a union official, Mr Mustapha Kabir, said.

Kabir, Chairman, Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU), JUTH chapter, said on Friday in Jos, that the Nurses had been denied two months shift allowances as punishment for the period they were on strike in March and April this year.

The two months protest had been declared to force government to pay shift allowances which were left out when salary payments migrated to IPPIS in 2015.

Contacted, Dr. Edmund Banwat, Chief Medical Director of JUTH, explained that the Nurses had, earlier in the year, abandoned shift duties to protest the non-payment of three months allowances.

“When government resolved to pay the three months arrears, it left out the shift allowances because the Nurses abandoned shift duty during the protest. Government’s action is pursuant to its `no work, no pay policy”.

“It is the enforcement of the `no work, no pay policy’ that has created the current situation where the Nurses have, again, abandoned shift duty.

“We have tried to speak with them because the hospital is not performing optimally.

“Doctors work round-the-clock to cater for the patients. They combine Nursing duties with consulting,” he said.