From Rasaq Ibrahim, Ado-Ekiti
The Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU) in Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital, Ado-Ekiti, has given the management till January 9 to reverse the sack of its members and meet other union demands or face industrial action.
In a statement by the Head of Corporate Affairs, Mrs. Rolake Adewumi, EKSUTH said it disengaged ghost workers and others with records of misconduct and sundry allegations in consonance with the report of Prof. Ebun Adejuyigbe-led visitation panel, which was released as white paper by the government.
But JOHESU said the mass disengagement of its members without due process was antithetical to the operational rules and regulations of the public service. It described the sack as outright illegality and lacking in merit.
The union, in a January 2 letter addressed to the EKSUTH’S Chief Medical Director, said the letter was to set the record straight and remind the hospital management of the state of things in EKSUTH.
The letter was signed by Comrades Farotimi Omotola, Mondi Kehinde and Olaiya Mary.
Omotola, however, stressed the need for immediate reversal of the unlawful mass disengagement of its members from service, saying failure to accede to its request within the stipulated time will result in strike.
The letter reads: “It is expedient to forward this letter to remind the management about what we have been passing through in the hospital.
“The union uses this medium to reiterate and highlight some of our agitations that need urgent attention. They include immediate reversal of the sack of our members who were disengaged from service without following public service rules; payment of outstanding cooperative and union dues, deduction of which is up to date and has accrued to the tune of N600 million; up-to-date payment of promotion arrears and conduct of outstanding promotion interview and immediate implementation of same; payment of 10 per cent employer counterpart of pension fund since January 2016 and if not the management should stop further deduction of employees contribution immediately. The pension act does not in any way support the current practice of EKSUTH as employer.
“If the aforementioned are not met within the stipulated time, we cannot guarantee continuous industrial harmony in the hospital.”
Meanwhile, the EKSUTH management has recalled some of the workers who were disengaged from the hospital.
A statement yesterday by Mrs. Adewumi, said the categories of affected workers recalled were “those who still have few years to retire from the service’. “These people were actually given option of voluntary retirement and a fast-track processing of all entitlements. However, the ultimate decision rests with the worker affected. Then, there were some people that were employed during accreditation; we asked those involved to come back.
“The management has clarified that speculations that 200 workers were involved is not true; just few persons were involved…”
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