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By Bola Bamigbola (Punch)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Working for three years without salary can be distressing\nespecially for married persons with several demands to meet. But that seemed to\nhave been the plight of outsourced workers comprising security guards,\ngardeners and cleaners at the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital,\nIle-Ife, Osun State.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Saturday PUNCH gathered that the last salary received by\nthis category of workers was in May, 2017. Also, from a document by the\nleadership of the Environmental Health Service Providers Association of\nNigeria, the supervisory body of the workers, there are 556 workers in the\nhospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A breakdown of the figure shows that 174 are cleaners and\ngardeners, while 382 are security guards. The highest paid workers receive N15,\n000 monthly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The workers are still hoping for the payment of the owed\nsalary even as they continued making efforts to draw attention of the relevant\nauthorities to their plight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our correspondent learnt that the affected workers at the\ntertiary healthcare facility enjoyed regular salary payment from 2007 when they\nwere contracted until 2012 when the contractors were reduced to 12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But sometime in 2014 however, there were indications of\nlooming trouble when the workers were owed salary for a year. But respite came\nin 2015 after the outstanding months were paid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But since May 2017, Saturday PUNCH gathered that all the affected\nworkers had been left with memories of the good old days. Four of them,\nincluding a director, had reportedly died within the period, while a cleaner\nwas said to have lost her 22-year old son, owing to her inability to raise\nmoney for test and operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eleven of the cleaners were said to be down with various\nailments and one of the affected workers reportedly lost an eye to a sickness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Investigation by Saturday PUNCH revealed that the workers\nwere employed by some contractors relating with the hospital on their behalf.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was further gathered that anytime there was delay in the\nrelease of fund to the hospital from the Federal Government, the management\nusually paid the workers from its Internally Generated Revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speaking on condition of anonymity, one of the contractors,\nsaid the matter reached its peak in 2017 following the implementation of the\nTreasury Single Account, which successfully blocked all alternative means the\nmanagement explored in the past to pay the workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
EHSPAN leadership petitions Osinbajo, SGF<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n However, the workers, under the aegis of EHSPAN, have\npetitioned the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo and the Secretary to the\nGovernment of the Federation, Boss Mustapha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the petition jointly signed by its chairman, Prince\nAderounmu Aderemi, and Secretary, Chief Dipo Eluwole, the workers said they\nwere owed 32-month salary totalling N400m by the hospital and pleaded for\nintervention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The letter read, \u201cWe, the underlisted are the\nrepresentatives of both security and cleaning services providers otherwise\nknown as outsourced contractors at the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching\nHospital Complex, providing aforementioned services at the various arms of the\ninstitution in the last 10 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe are constrained to inform you of the current\nindebtedness of the institution amounting to over N400m (four hundred million)\nin the past 32 months to the various organisations engaged to provide these\nessential services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe effects of the non-payment of this outstanding on our\ncleaners\/service providers and operations cannot be over-emphasised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cInformation at our disposal indicates that apart from the\nObafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital Complex and the University of\nIbadan Teaching Hospital, other Federal Government-owned health institutions\nare paying outsourced contractors as and when due.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe have collectively resolved to appeal and request that\nyou kindly use your good offices to wade into this matter urgently to prevent\nthe currently deprived, impoverished and agitated workers from taking the law\ninto their own hands.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Speaking further on the plight of the workers, Eluwole\nexonerated the university management of wrongdoing regarding the non-payment of\nthe workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He stated that the workers were ready to leave the hospital\nbut their outstanding salary should be paid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to him, at last count, four of the workers have\ndied and others are living in abject poverty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He said, \u201cWe got the contract for the cleaning, clearing and\nsecurity services in the hospital in April, 2007, via government directive that\nall teaching hospitals in the country should outsource the services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSince then our services were paid for, as and when due until\n2014 when lapses occurred in the payment for almost a year. But in year 2015,\ngovernment cleared the outstanding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn May 2017, the Ministry of Finance invited all the\noutsourced contractors in the South-West to a verification exercise at the\nLagos University Teaching Hospital. The authorities of all the teaching\nhospitals in the South-West were also invited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cRepresentatives of the Ministry of Finance and Health came\nfrom Abuja for the verification. After the verification, only one month was\npaid and since then, nothing has been paid to us as salary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen we met the CMD, he said issue of non-payment of\noutsourced contractors usually topped their discussion each time the CMDs hold\nmeeting in Abuja and yet no solution in sight. The most worrying aspect of it\nis that the cleaners are paid N15, 000 monthly. The amount is not up to the\nminimum wage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Asked the profit of the outsourced contractors in the\narrangement, Eluwole said government paid the workers N15, 000 monthly while\nthe contractors got seven per cent of the amount for their services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Saying non-payment of the workers constituted a threat to\nother workers in the hospital, Eluwole added that some of them in anger\nthreatened to enter the newly renovated isolation centre on the hospital\npremises to contract coronavirus and spread it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Efforts to get the reaction of the OAUTH management on the\nissue were futile as the hospital\u2019s Chief Medical Director, Prof. Victor\nAdetiloye, declined to comment on the matter when our correspondent contacted\nhim on his mobile.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Bola Bamigbola (Punch) Working for three years without salary can be distressing especially for married persons with several demands to meet. But that seemed to have been the plight of outsourced workers comprising security…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1282,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[324,325],"class_list":["post-1281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-polity-politics-governance","tag-oauth-cleaners","tag-unpaid-salary"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n