There are indications that the Osun State Government may have sacked the doctors in its employ, who have been on strike since September 28 last year.
It would be recalled that members of the Osun State Association of Medical and Dental Officers under the Hospitals Management Board and Association of Resident Doctors at LAUTECH Teaching Hospital, Osogbo, embarked on an indefinite strike on September 28, 2015 over alleged payment of half salaries and poor conditions of service.
At a press conference in Osogbo, the state capital, on Friday, the Chairman, Special Committee on Health, Dr. Simon Afolayan, announced that the state now believes that the striking doctors have resigned their appointments.
According to him, the striking doctors were deemed to have resigned their appointments because of their refusal to work for more than six months, although, no letter of sack had been issued to any of them.
The Chairman said, “Doctors are parts of the civil service and by the civil service rule you cannot abandon your duty post for six months without reason and not face the consequences. If you do so, it is deemed that you have resigned your appointment.
“This rule has taken effect,” Afolayan declared, adding that “those who still wanted to work with the government had been given a fresh opportunity.”
He described the demands of the doctors as impossible, saying there would be anarchy in the state if the government decided to pay full salaries to doctors yet continues to pay other civil servants half salaries.
“The state could not afford to pay the doctors’ salaries in full because of the financial crisis facing the state and the nation. Out of about 40,000 workforce in the state civil service, doctors working with the Osun State Hospitals Management Board are less than 100,” Afolayan pointed out.
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