Health Union in Anambra seeks improved workers welfare

By The Citizen

The Anambra chapter of the Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria (MHWUN) has called for the improvement of workers' welfare to boost performance.

The Chairman of the union, Mr Patrick Obianyo, made the call in Awka on Thursday in an interview with newsmen.

He said the health workers in particular had suffered a lot of hardship under successive governments in the stateAccording to him, permanent secretaries in the state received a net pay of N150,000 monthly while directors got N110,000 per month.

“You can imagine what the salary of lower workers will be with this, even when they have remained committed to duty,'' Obianyo said.

He said the state had received many awards on health, especially on immunisation challenges but regretted that the workers had not been appreciated by the government.

'Ironically, more than 95 per cent of immunisation work is done by other health workers who incidentally receive less than 40 per cent of the total salaries, and not even the recorded success could attract government's attention to us,'' he said.

Obianyo alleged that the government was unwilling to accord workers their rights by paying them the minimum wage and other fringe benefits.

'Anambra remains the only state where the organised labour has never gone into any meaningful dialogue with the government.

'The government is still holding seven months check-off dues of some industrial unions for going on strike to demand for the payment of the minimum wage,' he alleged.

Obianyo urged the government to treat the workers with some respect to make their life worth living.

He appealed for the promotion, training and re-training of workers to enhance their productivity.