– Osun state disengages the services of striking doctors
– Faults doctors for abandoning their duty for six months
– Describes the demands of the striking doctors as impossible to meet
Osun state government now considers doctors in the state who have been on strike as having resigned their appointments due to their absence from work for more than six months.
Governor Rauf Aregbesola has said the inability of his administration to pay salaries is due to the financial crisis.
Disclosing this at a press conference in Osogbo on Friday, February 19, the chairman, special committee on health, Dr. Simon Afolayan explained that though the doctors had not been issued sack letters, they are deemed to have resigned their jobs because they abandoned their duty post for six months without reason.
READ ALSO: How Chinese firm boost employment in Edo
“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.” he said, according to the Punch.
He however stated that the government had been given a fresh opportunity doctors who still wanted to work.
Referring to the financial crisis facing the state and the nation, Afolayan said the state could not afford to pay the doctors’ salaries in full for now.
He described the demands of the striking doctors as impossible, saying there would be anarchy in the state if the government decided to pay full salaries to doctors and continue to pay other civil servants half salaries.
READ ALSO: NUPENG blames DPR for fresh fuel scarcity
Recall that 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 because of payment of half salaries and poor condition of service.
The state government then advertised the positions of the doctors who were on strike after they refused to resume their duties after Governor Rauf Aregbesola threatened to implement the civil service rule against them.
The post Osun state sacks striking doctors appeared first on Nigeria News today & Breaking news | Read on NAIJ.COM.
