Ekiti nurses lament discrimination in salaries, allowance payment

The Ekiti State Commissioner for Health, Dr Oyebanji Filani, and nurses in the state’s public health sector have been at loggerheads over the non-payment of some categories of allowances since 2023.

The nurses under the National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives also accused the state government of discriminating against them in the implementation of the new salary scale for health workers.

Speaking exclusively with According Healthwise, the state chairman of NANNM, Comrade Samuel Adegbuyi, lamented that only the medical doctors have been enjoying the increased health salary structure known as the Consolidated Health Salary Structure and hazard allowance.

Adegbuyi explained that the association had written several letters to the government since October 2023 without any positive response.

He described the commissioner’s claim that the new salary scale had been implemented for all health workers as false.

The NANNM chairman said the nurses in the state are also demanding the domestication of the scheme of service for nurses in the state civil service, which would ensure that graduate nurses are absorbed at the appropriate grade level 10 instead of starting from scratch.

He explained, “The only thing peculiar to nurses in Ekiti state at the primary and the secondary health facility is the issue of graduate nurses coming into the state civil service. There is a level that that person must be absorbed, such a person is not expected to start from scratch. If you come up as a graduate who has spent five years in the university, spent one year doing an internship, and another year for your youth service, you are supposed to start on grade level 10. But it has not been domesticated in Ekiti state civil service.”

Explaining further on the alleged discrimination in salary upgrade and allowance for nurses, Adegbuyi added, “You know in general civil service, anybody who is promoted, they use Consolidated Health Salary Structure known as CONHESS which is the current salary scale for health workers. That one was not observed until the Federal Salary and Wages Commission was approached and they effected the correction with an enabling circular. And so it was effected, but they didn’t do it for nurses and other health workers, it was only effected for doctors.

“Since October 2023, we have written several letters to that effect without any positive response.

“And so each time the commissioner has access to any media, he will say that it has been effected for all health workers, whereas it is only the doctors that are enjoying it. That is the reason we responded to his media broadcast.”

When asked if the nurses would embark on strike if nothing is done despite several appeals, the NANNM chairman said the association would follow due process and protocol to demand their rights if the government continues to ignore their demands.

He urged the state government to intervene and resolve the issue to avoid a strike action that may have far-reaching consequences for the health sector.

“For now we are not embarking on strike, because there are rules of engagement. We only use that one as a reaction to that letter. If you want to embark on any industrial action, you must follow the due process; and the lay down protocol for that. We are going to write to the appropriate authorities as regards that.

“Since we responded on Tuesday, there has not been any response from the government because what we said is the truth. So, we don’t expect any reaction. And if there is any, we are ready to face whoever is asking us questions as regards the allowance,” he noted.

Adegbuyi, however, lamented that over 70 nurses have migrated from Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital alone, with many more from other facilities, making Ekiti the second highest in nurse migration after Lagos.

He stated, “From Ekiti State University teaching alone, not less than 70 nurses have migrated to greener pastures. And from the other facilities, those that have migrated are more. My findings from the Nurses and Midwifery Council of Nigeria where nurses do verification is that Ekiti is second to Lagos on this migration issue.”

When contacted, the health commissioner told our correspondent that only clinical health workers are enjoying the hazard allowance.

Responding to a claim by the nurses that he said all health workers in the state are enjoying the allowance, the commissioner said he was misunderstood.

He stated, “I said the government is paying hazard allowance to all clinical health workers. The hazard allowance is being paid, and we have also reviewed the salary for medical doctors. I think I was misinterpreted in the said broadcast.”