LAUTECH teaching hospital workers protest over unpaid salaries

Gbenro Adesina/Ibadan

Workers of Ladoke Akintola Teaching Hospital, LTH, Ogbomosho on Friday staged a peaceful protest over non-payment of eleven months salary.

The protesters, who sang various protest songs urged the government to pay the outstanding eleven months salaries comprising six months balance of last year and five month for the year 2017.

Among the inscriptions on the placards they carried were, “Enough is enough since January 2016”, “We are hungry”, “Lautech Teaching Hospital workers are dying of hunger”, “Ajimobi please pay our salary in full”, “Any government that fails to pay rightful wage of its workforce is worthless, “O to gee fun Aabo owo osu (it is enough for half salary)”, “Ajimobi don’t wait for God’s wrath”, “A father that fails to feed his household while boasting of being a constituted authority is clueless”, “what is our sin in Ogbomosho land”, “God will rescue us from the hand of Ajimobi”.

The genesis of the crisis is traceable to 2016 when the state government classified the teaching hospital as one of the tertiary education institutions in the state that have students from whom the institutions collect tuition fees and expect the institution’s management to pay their workers’ salaries through the money generated internally.

Speaking during the protest, the Secretary, Committee of Unions, LTH, Abiodun Lawal said the workers are rejecting the idea of half salary out rightly demanding the government to start paying full salary.

He also called for the immediate correction of the class and status of LTH Ogbomosho as a tertiary health institution noting that the hospital is primarily established for research, training and service.

According to him, “The hospital cannot charge unduly high fees for the services being provided, otherwise the common man in the community will not be able to afford it. Make LTH Ogbomosho work, health care is an essential service of the government to its citizens. LTH provides health care services to the people of Oyo state and the neighbouring states.

“It is a tertiary health institution established for research, training and service in that order. We demand that the government start paying us full salary.

“We demand urgent payment of the arrears of 2016 salaries and timely payment of full salary henceforth as well as the immediate correction of the class and status of LTH ogbomosho as a tertiary health institution.

The half salary situation has made us lose some of our best hands. We are due for another accreditation but I doubt if we can pass it. Our fear is that we might even lose some of the accreditations we had. We have lost most of our best hands to other hospitals, especially those we trained with Oyo state money. We are crying out as stakeholders before the whole system collapse”.