Nigerian health workers end strike despite no coronavirus hazard pay

21 September 2020 - 17:00 By Reuters

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A security guard uses a thermal scanner to check a woman's temperature as she enters the Tejuoso shopping complex at the Yaba market. Nigerian health workers demanding a hazard allowance for treating coronavirus patients have called off their strike.
Image: REUTERS/Temilade Adelaja

Nigerian health workers who went on strike in mid-September for a hazard allowance for treating coronavirus patients returned to work on Monday, their union said, without their demands being met.

The Joint Health Service Unions (JOHESU), representing nurses, midwives, radiologists and others, had called for life insurance, full access to protective equipment and the hazard allowance.

"The next line of action would be decided in due course by the expanded National Executive Council of JOHESU," the union said in a statement issued late on Sunday, titled "suspension of seven days warning strike".

It did not say why it had called off the strike if its demands had not been met.

Strikes by health workers are common in Nigeria.

Earlier this month, the National Association of Resident Doctors suspended a strike to allow the government time to meet its demands over pay and working conditions. It was the union's second strike of the year.

Nigeria has recorded a total of 57,242 confirmed coronavirus infections and 11,098 related deaths.