A coalition of healthcare professionals in Nigeria’s tertiary institutions has threatened to sue about 20 federal universities over the alleged non-payment of the Consolidated Non-Teaching Allowance to eligible health workers.
The Coalition of Healthcare Professionals in Tertiary Education Institutions in Nigeria said it had issued pre-action notices to 10 of the affected universities, while similar notices were being served on other institutions.
The coalition’s National Chairman, Musa Shehu, said the dispute followed the alleged exclusion of doctors, nurses, pharmacists and laboratory scientists from the allowance despite their membership of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities and the Non-Academic Staff Union.
According to Shehu, the affected health workers have been denied the allowance because they are employed under the Consolidated Health Salary Structure and Consolidated Medical Salary Structure rather than the Consolidated Tertiary Institutions Salary Structure applicable to other non-teaching staff.
He described the situation as discriminatory, arguing that some federal universities had already addressed the disparity by aligning the salary grades of health workers with equivalent levels under the Consolidated Tertiary Institutions Salary Structure and paying them the allowance.
Universities named among those facing possible litigation include the University of Jos, University of Calabar, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Bayero University, Kano, and the Federal University of Technology, Minna.
Others are the University of Ilorin, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, and Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-Alike.
The coalition said the affected institutions had 21 days from the date of receiving the pre-action notices to resolve the dispute, warning that failure to comply would trigger legal proceedings at the National Industrial Court of Nigeria.
It said its demands would include payment of all outstanding allowances, interest, damages and legal costs.
The group also accused the national leaderships of SSANU and NASU of failing to adequately protect the interests of health workers affected by the dispute.
It subsequently threatened legal action against the two unions over what it described as their failure to effectively represent the affected workers.
Meanwhile, health workers at the University of Jos and the University of Calabar have staged peaceful protests over the alleged non-payment, according to the coalition.
Shehu said the group would continue with its legal action until the affected universities entered into binding settlement agreements and paid all eligible health workers their outstanding allowances.
