The protesters who slept at the gate of the complex started the protest on Thursday by blocking all the entrances to the OAUTH around 7 am, preventing people from entering or going out of the hospital.
Some workers of the Obafemi Awolowo Teaching Hospital (OAUTH) continued their protest on Friday morning over unpaid salaries which they said has lasted for almost a year.
The protesters who slept at the gate of the complex started the protest on Thursday by blocking all the entrances to the OAUTH around 7 am, preventing people from entering or going out of the hospital.
The protesters displayed placards with various inscriptions such as: "Pay Our Salary, OAUTHC," "No to injustice," "Okeniyi must go, "Our 14-month salary or nothing else," and many more.
The management of the teaching hospital in a memo dated January 31, 2024, laid off no fewer than 2,000 workers recruited through alleged job racketeering that took place in the hospital from early 2022 to 2023.
According to the memo, the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation approved the recruitment of only 450 workers before the racketeering took place.
However, the workers on Thursday took to the streets to protest the decision to lay them off, demanding to be paid for the 14 months that they had worked.
One of the workers told SaharaReporters that they want their salary arrears to be paid before talking about the security of their jobs.
"We’ve been at this complex gate since yesterday and we slept here. All we want is for our salary arrears to be paid before talking about any job being secured.
"The exercise continues today till they respond to our request," he said.
One of the coordinators of the protest who also spoke with SaharaReporters said their dismissal letters should be retrieved immediately.
"Our demands are quite simple - the letter of dismissal should be retrieved immediately and our salary of 13 months should be paid with immediate effect.”
SaharaReporters had reported how workers at the OAUTH called on President Bola Tinubu to come to their aid, over the plan by its management to lay them off without paying their entitlements.
The workers alleged that the management subjected them to penury for over 12 months due to unpaid salary.
One of the employees told SaharaReporters that they were suffering and have resorted to begging to feed their families due to the hardship the non-payment of salaries had subjected them to.
He said; “I was given an appointment letter on December 13, 2022, after completion of my medicals. I was posted to the place of my primary assignment. Since then, we have been in this sorry-case situation, no salary was paid to me.
"Letters of Acceptance were required from each of us and same were returned to the Management of the Institution within the stipulated time.
"Medical tests were required from us to ascertain our physical, medical and mental fitness for the job which gulped in variations of N35,000 to N50,000 from the pulse of the newly employed staff each and these monies were paid directly into the account of the Hospital Management.
"Another sum of N5,000 flat rate was required from each of us by the management and the same was paid by all staff into the account of the hospital management as required and got cleared from the Unit Administration (UA) office of the institution.
"Files and file numbers were created, posting letters were also issued to every successful candidate into various departments and units of the hospital management and staff resumes officially.
"From the month of resumption and services into various departments and units, staff began signing of salary checklist in expectant of salaries into our earlier submitted various bank accounts.
"As work continues in expectations of our salaries, members of staff, due for annual leave, according to the Federal Government Civil Service Rules and Regulations were given approvals by the management of the hospital.
"In between July 2023 and November 2023, the Federal Ministry of Health and the management of the hospital conducted three (3) different levels of verification exercises for the staff in expectation of the popular IPPIS capturing and enrollment into the Federal Government salary portal.
"During the expectations of the various verification exercises, the Prof Okeniyi-led management paid only the medical doctors employed during the same period and through the same process a salary of five months, leaving all other staff who are not doctors in disarray and hopelessness into the new year 2024 even in the faces of general economic hardship in the country.
"The questions going through the minds of all staff affected now are; when would our salaries be paid? When will capturing into IPPIS portal come up?”