The nurses explained that they were always victimised anytime they demanded their rights including salaries.
Nurses at the University of Medical Sciences Teaching Hospital in Ondo State have protested over alleged victimisation by the hospital authorities.
The nurses explained that they were always victimised anytime they demanded their rights including salaries.
Some of them said they receive all sorts of queries daily from the authorities if they demanded their benefits.
The action, the nurses claimed, was making them feel depressed to continue working at the government-owned hospital.
The protesting nurses accused the Director of Nursing Services at the teaching hospital, Ajetunmobi Fehintola Olayinka, of specifically victimising them.
One of the nurses, who simply identified herself as Bisi, told SaharaReporters that the health workers were angry over the unfavourable actions of the hospital authority.
She said, "Anytime you demand your rights especially salary, the next thing you would see is a query.
"We are even disappointed that the authorities of the hospital don't even know the meaning of the query and when to use it.
"We have been telling them that minor offenses only needed verbal warning and not queries which they have decided to make as a tradition.
"But sadly, the office of the DNS has turned to an avenue for the victimisation of serving nurses who are always asking for their rights."
Another nurse, who pleaded not to be named, said authorities of the hospital were used to quoting civil service rules anytime a nurse challenged the status quo.
"So, we wonder how they cannot detect that there is no part of the civil service rules that say an employee should be owed a month’s salary not to talk of months", she added.
Mrs Olayinka, the hospital DNS, could not be reached when contacted by SaharaReporters but a source close to her said "some of the nurses are always rude in their approach".
However, the protest comes barely three days after a nurse in the government hospital, Mr Taiwo Adeleke, dropped a suicide note following an alleged similar case of victimisation.
The nurse had gone on social media to call out the authorities of the hospital after they failed to pay the salaries of the health workers in the facility.
But rather than addressing the salary issue, the authorities proceeded to issue a query to Adeleke over his action.
Concerned by the situation, the nurse again went on Ondo syyeto social media and wrote that he was "depressed" by the decision of the hospital authority.
He, thereafter, threatened to kill himself and went offline before he was declared missing by some of his friends and families.
The nurse was later found and rescued to the emergence unit of the hospital after taking an unknown substance to kill himself.
Nurses and other health workers in the state have been agitating for the payment of their salaries for the past three months and above.
The government has been making promises to offset the salary of the health workers.