The Association of Resident Doctors (ARD), University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, on Tuesday announced the suspension of its two-month-old strike.
The doctors had embarked on indefinite strike in October over anomalies in the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) introduced by the Federal Government.
The President of the association, Dr Babatunde Babasanya, told newsmen in Ibadan that the suspension was to give room for negotiation with the government.
“We are also suspending the strike to honour different scholars, the UCH authorities, well meaning Nigerians, among others, who have been appealing to the association to suspend the strike.
“It is so sad that the IPPS scheme has caused some of our members to lose part of their August and September salaries.
“Some of our members were paid as cooks, security men, cleaners and the likes, while others did not even collect any salary for these months.
“We were even shocked that when our November salary was paid, the shortfalls have not been corrected.
“We want them to regularise the August, September, along with December salaries in order for us not to commence the strike.
“We are not asking the government for excess money, this is our salary which we have worked for.
`We cannot cope with this financial hardship that has befallen us again,’’ Babasanya said.
The ARD president said though the government refused to yield to its request, the association decided to suspend the strike for peace to reign.
“The Federal Government has been short changing the authorities of UCH N100 million every month since January and this has been hampering the progress of this institution,’’ he said.
