Cold War in LAUTECH Hospital: Union Leaders Oppose Upgrading of Workers

– ———-Accuse OSHA of Budget Padding

By Segun Adeyemo

Workers of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology Teaching Hospital and the Joint Health Sector Unions are sharp divided over the upgrading of some workers of the hospital to their normal level in the service.

CityMirrorNews gathered that the Joint Health Sector Unions is opposing the upgrading of the workers majority of which are between level 3 and 4 to level 5 and 6, which was supposed to be their original level of employment.

Most affected in the case are indigenes of Osun State who were recruited in 2012 with levels 3 and 4. The affected workers were upgraded to levels 5, 6 and 7 in 2013 and later demoted in 2015, following the recommendation of a panel set up by the government to investigate the recruitment of workers and salary wage bill of the hospital.

It was gathered that while the Osun State House of Assembly, through the House Committee on Health, has agreed to upgrade the workers, the Joint Health Sector Unions objected to the move, describing it as hypocritical and insincere.

The Joint Health Sector Unions’s objection was on the ground that some of the LAUTECH hospital workers have been due for promotion for over seven years without been promoted by the government.

The unions accused the affected workers of attempting to get promotion through the back door by seeking politicians’ influence and allegedly compromising the House Committee on Health.

In a petition sent to Governor Rauf Aregbesola, the unions accused the House of Assembly of padding the LAUTECH hospital budget to accommodate the upgrading of the workers.

Dated February 03, 2017, the petition reads: “We are aware that there are plans to manipulate and carry out “padding’ by the State House of Assembly during the defence exercise of 2017 budget estimates for LAUTECH teaching hospital, Osogbo as against what your excellency presented to the House.

“While we are strongly in support of any action (s) that may facilitate the re-instatement of our staff that were demoted last year, we, however, perceived the singling out of only that matter by the assembly among many other encompassing and more pressing issues as selfish, insincere and great injustice which will cause more damage than any good.

“It is our opinion that the State Assembly will earn more respect if its plans to review the Hospital’s 2017 budget estimates are holistically carried out without leaving out any of the under listed encompassing and more important issues.”

Among the under listed issues in the petition are:” promotion of all qualified staff who have been diligently serving the hospital, among whom are people that have been on the same level for more than five years;

“Full implementation of the Contributory Pension Scheme for all staff in the hospital with the government’s counterpart funding included in the budget. Immediate implementation of agreed medical policy for all staff in the hospital;

“Inclusion of funds in the budget estimates to cater for existing but not yet implemented circulars which includes but not limited to Call Duty Rectification Allowance, Specialist Allowance for Other Health Professionals, and Enhanced Entry Point for Medical Laboratory Scientists and so on.”

The petition was signed by Chairmen and Secretaries of all the unions in the hospital.