President Bola Tinubu has approved the waiver of the no-work-no-pay order instituted against striking members of the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) on August 1, 2023.

The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, who made this known via a statement on Friday, October 20, noted that the waiver was in accordance with the Principle of the Presidential Prerogative of Mercy.

He said the order was placed on the resident doctors members following the commencement of their industrial action on July 26.

Ngelale stated: “In view of the faithful implementation of terms which were agreed upon during the fruitful deliberations between the Resident Doctors and the Federal Government of Nigeria, President Bola Tinubu has directed the grant of an exceptional last waiver of the ‘No Work, No Pay’ Order on Resident Doctors.

“This will allow the members of the NARD to receive the salaries which were previously withheld during the 17-day strike action.”

The presidential spokesman added that Tinubu granted the waiver with a mandatory requirement that the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment must secure a Document of Understanding (DoU).

He quoted President Tinubu as saying that the DoU must establish that the waiver granted by him would be the last to be granted to the resident doctors and all other health sector unions.

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Similarly, the president approved partial waiver of the no-work-no-pay on members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and ordered the release of their four months withheld salaries.

“Invoking the Principle of the Presidential Prerogative of Mercy, President Bola Tinubu has approved the partial waiver of the ‘No Work, No Pay’ Order that was instituted against striking members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU),” Ngelale added.

He stated that the order followed the commencement of their eight-month industrial action which began on February 14, 2022, and was terminated on October 17, 2022.

The presidential spokesman said: “In view of his determination to mitigate the difficulties being felt during the implementation of key economic reforms in the country, as well as his recognition of the faithful implementation of terms which were agreed upon during the fruitful deliberations between ASUU and the Federal Government of Nigeria.

“President Bola Tinubu has directed the grant of an exceptional last waiver of the ‘No Work, No Pay’ Order on ASUU, which will allow for the previously striking members of ASUU to receive four (4) months of salary accruals out.”

According to him, the amount is to be paid out of the eight months of salary which was withheld during the eight-month industrial action undertaken by the union.

He noted that the president also directed the Federal Ministry of Education and the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment to secure a Document of Understanding (DoU) from ASUU.

“The DoU is establish that this exceptional waiver granted by the President will be the last to be granted to the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and all other Education Sector Unions,” Ngelale noted.

The Star