FMC’s staff protest 2-year unpaid salary in Benue

Workers consisting of security guards and cleaners at the Federal Medical Centre, Makurdi in Benue State, on Monday, staged a protest to press home their demand for over two years unpaid salary.

The workers, who are casual staff, locked down the permanent site of the hospital situated at Apir, a Makurdi suburb, for hours as they barricaded the entrance to demand for incentives due to them.

One of the protesters, Anijaba Mtomga, a security supervisor at the hospital, told newsmen that the hospital management was owing them stipends for 24 months.

Mtomga noted that all efforts to make the management see reasons to pay them their monthly emoluments met brick walls such that they had no option than to resort to protest.

“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,” he said.

On the part of a cleaner supervisor, James Akase, the hospital hasn’t paid them for, at least, nine months as he said that life for him and his colleagues had become unbearable.

Meanwhile, a management staff and Deputy Director of Nursing Services in the hospital, Moses Atime, explained to newsmen 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 with 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 added.

Similarly, the Deputy Head of Clinical Services FMC, Makurdi and Apir Site Coordinator, Dr Matthew Ocheifu, admitted that the situation of the outsourced workers had greatly posed a serious security challenge at the centre as he stressed that workers needed a secured and peaceful environment to render effective and quality healthcare services.