AKURE — Recently integrated and recruited health workers under the Ondo State Hospitals Management Board (HMB) have appealed to Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa over the non-payment of their salaries since they resumed duty in August.
The workers, operating under the name Concerned Health Workers, contacted Starnews NG through an email appeal. They requested anonymity, citing fears of administrative victimisation, and described the financial difficulties they have faced after working for three months without receiving their salaries.
In the letter, the workers expressed appreciation to Governor Aiyedatiwa for his reforms in the health sector and his efforts to recruit more medical personnel in response to the growing emigration of health professionals, commonly referred to as the ‘Japa syndrome’.
They also commended the HMB for regularising the employment of several workers who had served as casual staff since the administration of the late Governor Adebayo Adefarati. However, they said the excitement that followed their formal employment had been replaced by financial hardship, as they continued to report for duty without pay.
‘We sincerely thank Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa for giving us a lifeline. Through his intervention at the HMB, many of us who had worked as casual staff since the administration of the late Chief Adebayo Adefarati were finally absorbed as permanent civil servants,’ a representative of the group wrote.
‘The Governor’s reforms have given us hope, and this recruitment was exactly what Ondo State needed to discourage our colleagues from leaving the country. But we are currently suffering in silence. Since we resumed work in August, we have not received a single payment or bank alert. We are completely stranded.’
The workers said their difficulties had been worsened by the cost of commuting to their places of deployment. According to them, many of the newly recruited staff were posted outside their residential areas and local government areas, resulting in significant daily transport expenses.
‘We are spending money we do not have just to get to work. Many of our colleagues were posted to hospitals outside their local government areas, and we have to pay heavily for transport every day to ensure that we do not abandon our patients,’ the appeal stated.
The workers said they had exhausted their savings and were now borrowing money to meet their basic needs and report to work.
‘It has been difficult and exhausting. We have exhausted our savings and are now borrowing money simply to survive and get to our duty posts. We appeal to our Governor to look into our plight and order the immediate payment of our salaries,’ they added.
As of the time of filing this report, the Ondo State Hospitals Management Board had not issued an official statement on the administrative or budgetary delays affecting the payment of the August recruits’ salaries.
Efforts to reach the HMB Chairman, Dr Oluwafemi Akeredolu, for comments were unsuccessful, as he could not be reached on his telephone lines before press time.
The affected health workers are appealing for urgent intervention, saying their commitment to providing healthcare services across Ondo State should not come at the expense of their own welfare, Starnews reports.
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