Nurses of the University Medical Sciences Teaching Hospital, UNIMEDTH on Thursday temporarily grounded activities at the facility as they demanded for the payment of their five months outstanding salaries.
While giving the Ondo State Government one-week ultimatum for their demands to be met, the nurses who were newly employed threatened to embark on indefinite strike if the state government failed to yield to their demands at the expiration of the ultimatum.
The nurses who protested in the complex of the hospital in Akure, the state capital were armed with placards baring various inscription.
Some of the inscription read, “We say no to intimidation and oppression,” “Our lives matter,” “Salary should not be a privilege,” “A worker deserves to be paid,” “We have been fighting COVID-19 on empty stomach,” “Mr Governor have mercy on us” among others.
The nurses who lamented that the situation has turned them to beggars also demanded for the regularization of their slashed salaries and provision of Personal Protective Equipment, PPE.
“All efforts to demand for our salaries were sabotaged. Worthy of note is that a good number of us tested positive for COVID-19 despite not being remunerated.
“Asides these, the single and double qualified nurses in the same institution experienced massive salary slashes earlier this year,” a nurse said.
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