UITH management orders striking doctors back to work or face sanction

The management of University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH), Ilorin, has sharply criticised members of the hospital’s chapter of Association of Resident Doctors (ARD) for non-adherence to the rules of industrial relations in their ongoing five-day warning strike, which today entered its second day.

Besides, the management threatened to invoke the ‘no work, no pay’ directives of the Federal Ministry of Health on the doctors if they failed to call off the strike.
According to the management, at the end of its emergency meeting yesterday, following the commencement of the strike, the doctors, in their letter ARD/UITH /SEC/OUT/17/56, dated August 1, premised their action on the decision reached at its emergency meeting of July 31, thereby depriving the management the statutory adequate notification period before the declaration of any form of industrial disputes.

It said the commencement of the strike on August 2, barely 24 hours after serving the notice, remained a “malicious action” and a deliberate step aimed at shunning duties.

“The management wishes to register its displeasure of the short notice of this current strike, which gave no window of engagement, and to remind the association of the ‘no work, no pay’ directive of the Federal Ministry of Health.

“Management, however, remains open to negotiations aimed at stopping the present strike and preventing a recurrence of same.”The local ARD, through its Chairman, Dr. Kolawole Ige, had cited non-payment of certain emoluments of members by the management as the main reason for the strike.

But Head, Corporate Affairs Unit, of the hospital, Mrs. Olufunmilayo Omojasola, insisted that management had always paid all the resident doctors complete salaries as at when due, except on a few occasions when funds were remitted late.

Despite the industrial disharmony, normal activities were still going on unhindered at the hospital, as consultants, who have firmly taken over the duties of the striking doctors, were attending directly to all the patients.