Health Workers’ Strike: TUC Reject ‘No Work, No Pay’ Directive

The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) has kicked against the stoppage of salaries of the striking workers of the Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU) through the ‘No work, On Pay’ policy of the federal government, declaring that it will resist any attempt to starve workers into submission.

In a document signed by the TUC President, Comrade Festus Osifo and Comrade General Secretary General, NA Toro, the Congress described the circular by Director of Hospital Services, Dr. Abisola Adegoke, ordering the stoppage of the workers’ salaries as ‘’authoritarian and confrontational, and declaration of hostilities against Nigerian workers, particularly health workers who have continued to carry the burden of collapsing healthcare system under unbearable conditions.’’

Rising in solidarity with the striking JOHESU members, the Congress said it “unequivocally, vehemently, and totally reject the circular issued by the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare on the implementation of ‘No Work, No Pay’ and the stoppage of salaries of members of members of the Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU) through IPPIS, effective January 2026.”

It said that “Congress states in clearest terms that this action is a gross abuse of power, a deliberate sabotage of ongoing negotiations, and a flagrant violation of established industrial relations principles. It represents a return to command-in-control labour administration, which is has no place in democratic society.

“Congress will resist any attempt to starve workers into submission. History has shown clearly and repeatedly, that Nigerian workers do not surrender their rights under threat or hunger.”  

TUC accused the government of insincerity in the management of the development, alleging double standards in the handling of the crisis. “You cannot negotiate with workers on one hand and unleash punishment with the other. This circular is no policy, it is intimidation, and congress will not accept it.”

Continuing, it said, “the stoppage of salaries of JOHESU members , workers who daily save lives, is wicked, insensitive, provocative and utterly unpatriotic, especially at a time Nigerian workers are already being crushed by inflations, fuel price hike,, and economic hardship imposed by government policies, adding that that the weaponisation of IPPIS to punish workers is an abuse of state machinery.”

TUC stated that the “Congress will resist any attempt to starve workers into submission. History has shown clearly and repeatedly, that Nigerian workers do not surrender their rights under threat or hunger.”