Following the expiration of 21 day ultimatum given to the Management of University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, over non payment of their annual uniform allowance, Nurses at the hospital under the umbrella body of National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives (NANNM) have resumed work at the medical facility in mufti as a show of protest to demand payment of their accumulated four allowance.
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It was gathered that the development has however, raised ethical and security concerns among patients and workers inside the facility.
A nurse at the rank of a deputy director in who craved anonymity confirmed the development to newsmen
The nurse added that the 21 day ultimatum which he said was ignored by the UCH management until its last day on October 3rd and the subsequent decision by members of (NANNM), UCH, Ibadan chapter was backed by the national body.
The nurse said: “every nurse working at a federal medical institution in Nigeria are given uniform allowance, that is 20,000 (twenty thousand naira) per year but UCH, since 2019 decides not to pay nurses. There have been fruitless negotiations over the years but later, UCH management was given 21 day ultimatum to pay.
“Throughout the 21 day ultimatum, there was no negotiation or no discussion with the association, in fact, the letter was written to the management by the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives, so, the directive to embark on what we’re doing is from the national body. Even when we wanted to embark on coming to work in mufti, the management was notified but did not do anything.
“Even the 20,000 allowance is not enough for a nurse of any category. For instance, my own uniform costs 75,000 (seventy five thousand naira) and you know in most cases, a nurse doesn’t have just one uniform, so, on Wednesday, we decided to start coming to work in mufti and we will continue with that until the management pays all our money since 2019 till date.”
However, as of the time of filing this report, the Public Relation Officer of UCH, Funmi Adetuyibi, could not be reached via the phone as her line was unreachable.
It was also gathered that the management of the medical institution was in an ongoing meeting.
