Law and ethics of strikes in the Nigerian health system

Abstract

Despite that health services are essential, health sector strikes have continued.  The purpose here was to examine the legal and ethical justification of strikes in the  Nigerian health sector. Documentary analysis and literature reviews were carried out. It was found that the Trade Disputes Act and the National Health Act do not provide for strikes by health workers. Virtue ethics does not also recognize health sector strikes. Although definite claim to the rightness or wrongness of the actions of health workers may be difficult, compliance or non-compliance to professional pledges can be associated with rightness or wrongness of their actions. It is concluded that trustees of the public health have a duty and are under obligation to respect human dignity at all times. This is because health sector strikes reflect a loss of the values of professional ethics by health workers. Discussions in bioethics among health workers can redress this loss by targeting the affective domain in health workers' learning during training.

Keywords: Compliance, Deliberate acts, Duty, Health workers, Obligation.