The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) have jointly threatened mass industrial action.
The unions, in solidarity with the Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU), have given the Federal Government a 14- day deadline to meet the demands of aggrieved health workers.
Failure to act, they warned, would trigger a coordinated strike across multiple sectors, potentially paralyzing economic and social activities nationwide.
In a joint statement by the Secretary of TUC, Comrade General, Dr. NA Toro and Comrade Benson Upah, Acting General Secretary of NLC respectively, the trade unions said that they reject what they termed the persistent and deliberate provocative refusal of the Federal government to implement the report of the Technical Committee on the adjustment of the Consolidated Health Salary Structure (CONHESS) submitted since 2021.
The unions insisted that the continued delay in the implementation of the reports “is no longer an administrative lapse, but a conscious act of injustice, bad faith, and institutional disrespect to health workers and organized labour.
‘’It is, therefore, unacceptable, and a blatant provocation, while the difficulty in implementing the adjustment of Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS) with effect from 2nd January 2014, the same government has willfully refused to implement the same for CONHESS.
This selective justice and discriminatory application of policy within the same sector expose the insincerity of the government’s commitment to fairness, equity, and industrial harmony,’’ they said.
Consequently, the trade unions have given the Federal government an “irrevocable fourteen days’ ultimatum to immediately implement the, without further delay, technical report on the adjustment of the CONHESS in line with the established precedents in health sector or they will compel organized labour to mobilize all Nigerian workers nationwide, across both public and private sectors, for total and coordinated industrial action.’’
The ultimatum, effective 23 January, according to the release, “will include mass protests, picketing of health institutions and government offices, and a nationwide withdrawal of services until this injustice is decisively addressed.’’
According to the release, the unions claim that “despite repeated interventions, engagements, and restraint exercised by the leadership of the TUC and NLC in the interest of peace, the Ministry of Health has remained arrogantly unresponsive, offering excuses instead of action.
This attitude amounts to a gross abuse of trust and a direct challenge to organized labour.
‘’TheTUC and NLC hereby issue a final and irrevocable fourteen (14) -day ultimatum to the Federal Ministry of Health and all relevant authorities, effective 23 January 2026, to immediately implement, without further delay or equivocation, the 2021 Technical Committee report on the adjustment of CONHESS, in line with established precedents in the health sector.
‘’Let it be clearly understood that failure to comply within Fourteen (14) days will compel organized labour to mobilize all Nigerian workers nationwide, across both public and private sectors, for total and coordinatedindustrialaction. Thiswill include mass protests, picketing of health institutions and government offices, and a nationwide withdrawal of services until this injustice is decisively addressed,’’ they said.
