Casual workers of the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) Makurdi, Benue State on Monday staged a protest to press home payment of wages owed them for over two years.

The casual workers who comprised security guards and cleaners were said to have barricaded the entrance to the permanent site of the hospital at Apir, on the outskirts of Makurdi.

One of the protesters, a security supervisor, Mr. Anijaba Mtomga, who spoke to newsmen said they decided to stage the protest because the management was owing them 24 months salaries.



Mtomga said they resorted to the protest as a last option after every other effort to make the management pay them their monthly emoluments failed.

“The management kept saying it is the Federal government that has not released money for our emoluments and this is running to two complete years that we have not been paid.

“We understand that the hospital provides essential services to the people and we have exercised patience and understanding with the management, but we can no longer continue like this; we have families and other responsibilities to attend to.”

Also speaking, Mr James Akase, a cleaner supervisor said that they were being owed nine months salaries by the hospital, stressing that they had to resort to protest because the situation was becoming really tough for them to bear.



Reacting, one of the management staff, Mr Moses Atime, a Deputy Director, Nursing Services said that the Federal Ministry of Health and Human Services was responsible for the payment of all out-source staff within the health sector.

“The management is aware of this particular issue and all hands are on deck to resolve the issue. Already the Managing Director is on his way to Abuja to meet the ministry over the same issue.



“The Federal government through the Federal Ministry of Health and Human Services is responsible for their payment. They are not on our payroll,” Atime explained.

Deputy Head of Clinical Services, FMC, Makurdi, and Apir Site Coordinator, Dr Matthew Ocheifu, lamented that the non-payment of salaries of the out-sourced workers had posed a serious security challenge at the centre.

https://www.akelicious.net/2019/03/fmc-makurdi-casual-workers-protest-non.html