Chukwu Obinna 
ABUJA, Nigeria – The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has declared full support for the ongoing industrial action by the Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU), warning that the strike could escalate into a nationwide shutdown if the Federal Government fails to implement long-standing salary agreements for health professionals.
NLC President, Joe Ajaero, said in a statement released on Tuesday night that the Congress is prepared to mobilise all Nigerian workers in solidarity with health unions unless the Federal Government urgently effects the Consolidated Health Salary Structure (CONHESS), which has remained unresolved for more than a decade.
The JOHESU strike followed the union’s National Executive Committee resolution of 14 November 2025, triggered by the government’s failure to honour a Memorandum of Understanding signed on 29 October 2024.
At the centre of the dispute is the delayed implementation of CONHESS, the pay structure for non-physician health workers. In contrast, the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS) for doctors has been operational since January 2014.
Ajaero described the dispute as “one of the most protracted labour disagreements in the annals of our country,” adding that successive administrations have undermined collective bargaining by neglecting signed agreements.
He criticised recent attempts to tie CONHESS implementation to relativity and parity clauses, describing them as tactics to “evade and obfuscate the clear provisions of a straightforward agreement.”
Ajaero also dismissed a recent memo from the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare to the National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission, saying it further demonstrates the government’s reluctance to honour commitments.
“It is disconcerting that the government treats signed collective bargaining agreements as worthless pieces of paper,” he said, warning that unresolved welfare issues could trigger broader mobilisation based on the labour movement’s principle that “injury to one is injury to all.”
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