...As health workers’ strike grounds OAUTHC
From GABRIEL DIKE, Osogbo
Monday, July 13, 2009

The strike action by various health unions of the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital Complex (OAUTHC), Ile Ife, Osun State, over alleged stoppage of members promotion in the last three years has grounded activities in the hospital.

Daily Sun visit to the hospital on Friday and Saturday revealed that virtually all the wards were empty while the hospital was unable to admit new patients who came to the hospital oblivious that the strike persisted.
The strike by the Senior Staff Association of Universities Teaching Hospitals Research Institutes and Associated Institutions (SSAUTHRIAI), the health workers said they would not reconsider their position until the leadership of the union secure concrete assurance on the implementation of the 2006-2008 promotion arrears.

According to a staff at OAUTHC, the workers were compelled to resume the suspended strike last week Tuesday when, according to them, they discovered that they were tricked to suspend the strike by the concerned authorities.
The OAUTHC Chairman of SSAUTHRIAI, Comrade Kayode Adepoju, told Daily Sun on Sunday that all the affected 10 unions including nurses, health information officers, medical information scientists, medical adiograpghers, physiotherapists, dieticians, health administrators, stores and supply officers would continue to shun work until the authorities are ready to meet the demand of members.
Adepoju explained that the money promised to be paid this week by the Federal Government to health workers was quite different from what the OAUTHC unions were fighting for.

The chairman of the union said the only condition that might make members return to work was for the Federal Government to put a board of management in place to tackle the promotion issue once and for all.
He blamed the arrears of promotion owed members on the absence of board management to conduct necessary promotion examination, noting that the development had brought untold hardship to the members.
He accused the Federal Ministry of Health officials of deliberate plan to destabilise health institutions, pointing out that despite several appeals, government had refused to constitute a board to facilitate the promotion exercise thus putting an end to the alleged undermining and rubbishing the extant condition of service.

The union leader, who said there was no going back until the Federal Government was ready to listen to the unions, appealed to the public for understanding regretting that the strike had affected effective discharge of health care delivery system.
The SSAUTHRIAI chief explained that the strike is limited to the hospital because it is among the seven teaching hospitals in the country, which were affected by the arrears of promotion.