By Jesse Ese, Yenagoa

The Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU) in Bayelsa State, which comprises of the Medical and Health Workers’ Union of Nigeria, National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives, National Union of Pharmacists, and Medical Technologists and Professions Allied to Medicine has called on the government of Bayelsa State to stop forthwith its plan to further reduce the salaries of their members.

The call was made during their enlarged state executive council’s meeting which was held at the Medical and Health Workers’ Union of Nigeria (MHWUN) State Secretariat in Yenagoa recently.

The JOHESU, after deliberating on the fundamental issues affecting their members’ welfare especially the continuous tampering of their salaries and health allowances, called on the government to immediately withdraw their plans to reduce their salaries and legitimate health allowances approved to them by the Federal Government.

Describing the government’s action as against the concept and principles of collective health service delivery, the union demanded for the immediate payment of their accumulated arrears which Gov. Dickson promised on Monday 6^th of February, 2012, at the NUT’s Secretariat in Yenagoa during his governorship campaign.

The union also stated that the Bayelsa State government has treated labour and industrial relation’s matters with levity. They also said that they discovered that Bayelsa health workers are the most taxed after consulting States and Federal Institutions in Abuja.

They call on government to halt the current computation and set up a committee of labour, tax board and government to work out an appropriate and more friendly tax system; adding that the present tax system has reduced the state’s civil servants’ and health workers’ salaries to the poorest in the federation.

They also expressed dismay over government’s payment of health workers without pay slip thereby denying their right to know the accurate amount due to them that this system creates room for them to be cheated.

JOHESU also called on the government to render an up-to-date account on the Federation Housing Fund Scheme which their salaries are deducted every month without members knowing the actual position of the scheme.

The union has also decided to declare an industrial dispute if the government refuses to settle all the raised issues till the 9^th of September 2013; adding that they shall also embark on peaceful street marches and rally including press conferences.