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By Emmanuel Adeleke
Workers of the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital (EKSUTH), Ado Ekiti, on Monday took to the street to protest the alleged unpaid emoluments by the management.
The staff, under the auspices of the Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU), converged on the main gate of the tertiary health facility located at Adebayo area and sealed off the hospital.
The protesting staff in their hundreds chanted anti-government songs to deride the government’s action over the debilitating plights of workers in the health institution.
Addressing the workers, the JOHESU Chairperson, EKSUTH chapter, Mrs. Omotola Farotimi, said their action is against non-payment of salary arrears, cooperative deductions, non-implementation of minimum wage and unpaid leave bonuses.
Farotimi explained that the cooperative deductions had not been paid by the management in the last 24 months, thereby increasing the amount to roughly N1.6 billion, without hope that the amount would be defrayed in the near future.
“We are being owed deductions for two years and we are getting tired. This development has led to brain drain as many of our best hands have left for greener pastures.
“We signed an MOU with the state government that every approval for staff of federal teaching hospitals would be given to us.
“However, up until now, we have yet to get the minimum wage which has been approved since 2019. The last board approved it but the management failed to pay,” she said
Farotimi, who described the situation as disheartening, stressed that in spite of their sacrifices to the state government, the workers had been treated so badly by successive administrations.
She said the protest would continue until the state government do the needful.