Olanrewaju Lawal, Birnin-Kebbi
The Management of Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Birnin-Kebbi, Kebbi State, at the weekend reached an agreement with a private security outfit, the Crown Continental Limited (CCL), to continue negotiation over eight months unpaid salaries to it guards employed in the hospital.
Daily Sun gathered that about 81 officers of the security company, attached to the hospital have being on strike since Friday, and they staged a two-day peaceful protest over their unpaid salaries.
It was learnt that each of the guards, who are on N18,000 monthly salary, could not be paid due to TSA policy of the Federal Government, as the FMC could not meet up with their salaries for the past eight months.
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Shedding light on the issue, the Director of Administration, Alhaji Abbas Barau, argued that the actual months owed were just two months and it was because the federal government, who is responsible for the payment, failed to release the funds for the payment of their services.
‘’The agreement is between the management of CCL and FMC management on behalf of the federal government. The source of payment comes from federal government; once we received the money, we pay the company who will now pay their staff,” he said.
Barau said the management has reached an agreement with the company, so that the security guards could go back to their duty posts, while negotiations will continue. In his reaction, the Legal Officer/Manager of CCL, Kebbi State, Barrister Ahmed Adedoyin, told journalists, yesterday, that all parties had agreed to embrace dialogue after two days protest, while the management of FMC and the security agencies in the state have decided that everybody should go back to the round table to finalise the modalities to pay the salaries.