NAFDAC workers suspend six-week-old strike

Workers at the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC), on Monday, suspended their six-week-old strike.

The workers are members of the Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria (MHWUN).

The Vice-Chairman of the union, Idzi Isua, confirmed the development during the union’s congress on Monday morning.

Mr Isua said the union resolved to suspend the strike following an agreement reached with the management.

The union embarked on strike on 21 June to protest, amongst other things, poor welfare packages and unpaid promotion arrears.

Mr Isua said the union had issues with NAFDAC management over staff welfare and that this has lingered for years.

He said the agency has a poor salary structure with no allowances attached to it which he noted has grossly affected the staff.

Mr Isua said the union discussed with the management to bring in some allowances to back up the salary paid.

He said they had agreed that an allowance called regulatory and hazard allowance will be included along with the monthly salary.

“This has been going on for two years but it failed, that’s why we proceeded on strike,” he said.

Mr Isua said the union suspended the strike after reaching a favourable agreement with the management.

“We requested for 30 per cent as hazard allowance and that has been approved and paid for the entire year,” he said.

He noted that the management has also fulfilled the promise of paying ‘the long service award’ given to every retiree of the agency.

“As a result of this strike, the management has paid that allowance to the retirees who were supposed to receive it for last year and they will clear that of 2022 by the end of the year.

“We also have pending promotion arrears from 2018-2021 and this also led to the strike,” he said.

He said the NAFDAC management and office of the Accountant-General of the Federation have cleared that of 2018 to 2020.

“We have an agreement with the management to clear that of 2021 before the end of September this year,” he said.