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| Gov. Aregbesola |
THE ongoing strike by medical doctors in Osun State may have been compounded, as Medical and Dental Consultant Association of Nigeria (MDCAN) has urged the Board of Management of Ladoke Akintola University Teaching Hospital, Osogbo to meet the demands of the association before the expiration of an ultimatum given the board or risk industrial strike.
The ultimatum expires on Wednesday next week.
The doctors are demanding full payment of their salaries from July last year and other sundry matters related to welfare.
The consultants said they have been rendering skeletal services in the interest of the public, saying members would embark on strike at the expiration of the notice, if nothing was done to meet their demands.
Governor Rauf Aregbesola had on Thursday threatened to sack the striking doctors in the state on Monday if they remained adamant.
Meanwhile, the Association of Resident Doctors (ARD) has said that its members were not moved by the governor’s threat of sack and would not resume duties until the state government meets their demands.
Aregbesola issued the threat at a public function in Osogbo, where friends, associates and government officials gathered to celebrate the 75th birthday anniversary of the pioneer president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Alhaji Hassan Adebayo Sunmonu.
MDCAN said they were unhappy about alleged media propaganda by government agents to the effect that full services was going on in the hospital, contrary to the reality on ground.
Its Chairman, Dr. Rasak Akindele, who led others to a press conference yesterday in Osogbo, dissociated members from a subsisting agreement by workers and the state government giving approval to apportionment of salaries in accordance to the funds available each month.
He lamented that the payment of half salary to members from July last year was not in the interest of the association and urged the
hospital Board to implement its demands as contained in the notice issued or be ready to contend with strike.
He said: “To make matters worse, the state government took the salary payment away from the account section of the hospital and contracted it out to CHAMS.
“This has resulted in mutilated salaries for all
members of MDCAN.”
Source: THEGUARDIAN