No fewer than 800 people recruited by Adamawa government in 2014 as hospital cleaners, security men, drivers, record keepers, laboratory and theatre attendants have cried out that they have not been paid for 27 months.
The workers, who spoke to newsmen on Monday in Yola, said none of them has been paid since they were employed.
They wanted the state Governor to directly intervene to end their sufferings.
Spokesman of the workers, Mallam Ibrahim Auwal, said they had complained to Ministry of Health and a committee was set up.
“We were screened by a committee which retrieve our permanent and pensionable employment letter and replace it with temporary appointment.
“We were given personal subhead number with the assurance that we would be captured in September salary, but report reaching us is that the voucher of September salary to be paid this week did not include us.
“We want Governor Bindow to intervene in this matter to end our sufferings as we are aware that we were captured in the bail out money collected by the state government,” Auwal said.
He noted that the 836 of them comprising security, drivers, record keepers, theatre and Laboratory attendants had the capacity to ground activities in government hospitals if their plight was not attended to.
“Doctors and Nurses are being paid while we are being ignored; government needs to know that if we go on strike there will be no work in the hospitals.
“If we don’t work, there will be no admission in hospitals.”
He blamed the committee set up to verify them for creating more confusion by omitting the names of 173 people and adding other new names to the list.
“We are 836 but the committee after the screening omitted the names of 173 people and again went ahead to submit the list of 998 people creating more confusion as the Commissioner of Health refused to sign leading to the setting up of another committee to look into the complaint.”
An official source in the Ministry of Health said the ministry had done the needful and that “every thing is now with the Ministry of Finance who should pay them.”
Efforts to get the Commissioner of Finance, Alhaji Mohammed Sali, to comment on the matter did not yield result as he was said to be out of town while his GSM line was not reachable.
NAN
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