Doctors under the Association of Resident Doctors, Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), Sagamu said, “we have decided to sit at home on weekends.”
The Doctors had earlier embarked on a three day warning strike. It was reported that the medical practitioners had written letters to the government of Ogun state on the issue of Appropriate Remuneration, Entry Level, New Minimum Wage, Hazard allowance and Life Insurance for their members, but there was no response.
Although Governor Dapo Abiodun had appealed to the health workers of the state during a meeting not to allow issues degenerate amid tackling Covid-19.
The Governor had promised the health workers that he will put in place life insurance policy for them, increasing their hazard allowance by 300%.
However the President of the association, Dr Mutiu Popoola stated: “We gave ultimatums, still no response. And then we went on a warning strike. Then we were called to a meeting. But surprisingly, we were chastised for choosing this time to agitate. But that is not true, our agitation pre-dated COVID-19 Pandemic by many months,”
He added, “we had expected the government would look into our request after the meeting but alas, like the proverbial cutlass, it still landed on the flat side! The sincerity on the government’s side is invisible to us.”
The doctor said: “Since the government has chosen to simply rub the issues, without any form of real commitment to begin to treat us fairly, we have resolved to discharge our duties only during working days of the week because of our concern for the people in these trying times, we have decided to sit at home on weekends.
“We hope the Ogun State government will wake up to its responsibility and our congress shall review in two weeks, if any worthwhile transformation occurs. We have decided to leave our members working directly in the COVID-19 treatment centre to go on with their duties uninterrupted, within this additional two-week wait, after which we would reappraise and determine what next.
He concluded, “We are sincerely willing to attend to the health needs of Ogun State and its environs, and we have waited and waited and waited, but there is a limit to which it would be right to keep on enduring this insensitivity to the continued unfair treatment of the resident doctors.”
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