OAUTH sacks 1,500 workers months after recruitment without salaries

• Sacked employees shut down hospital, patients stranded
• ‘We won’t open hospital gates until our salary arrears are paid’

No fewer than 1,500 workers that were laid off by the management of Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital (OAUTH), Ile-Ife, yesterday, protested against their disengagement.

The management of the hospital had employed the workers in 2022, but following discovery by the Federal Government that the management and some workers were allegedly involved in job racketeering, the workers were laid off through a circular issued on Wednesday.

But angered by the development, the affected workers besieged the hospital gates, yesterday, chanting songs to drive home their dissatisfaction, as well as asking the management to rescind its decision.

The workers blocked all the entrance gates of the OAUTH around 7.00 a.m. and prevented entry and exit.

The demonstration affected patients and frustrated clinical activities in and around the complex.

A circular, which was addressed to all heads of department and members of staff in the hospital and signed by the Acting Director of Administration, O. O. Omonije, picked a few workers and asked others said to be over 1,500 to cease from parading themselves as members of staff of the hospital.

Meanwhile, the affected workers kicked and asked the management to rescind the decision, pay their salary arrears and withdraw the allegation that they were involved in job racketeering.

When contacted, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the institution, Kemi Fasoto, said that the management was waiting for a directive from the Minister of Health and Social Welfare on the issue.