The industrial crisis rocking Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso, Oyo State, took a distressing turn on Thursday with the sack of 255 workers.

The affected workers were sacked at the LAUTECH Teaching Hospital, Ogbomoso.

According to findings, 299 workers of the LAUTECH Teaching Hospital were to be redeployed to the state’s civil service, thus bringing the number of affected staff to 554.

LAUTECH is jointly owned by the governments of Oyo and Osun states.

The affected workers were informed of the authority’s decision via an internal memorandum by A.M. Ajiferuke, and dated December 27, 2017.

“Kindly find below the list of disengaged staff as directed by the Oyo State government and approved by the board at her meeting held on Thursday, 21st December, 2017,” the memo said.

Consequently, fears have gripped workers of the embattled institution on account of the pervasive uncertainty in the institution.

INDEPENDENT was informed on Thursday that leaders of various labour unions in the university were already preparing for a showdown with governments of the two states.

However, efforts to get the spokesperson of the teaching hospital to confirm the list proved abortive.

But sources at the LAUTECH Teaching Hospital confirmed the development and described it as unfortunate.

When asked about the development, the LAUTECH’s spokesman, Lekan Fadeyi, said he could not speak for the teaching hospital.

Nonetheless, Sebastine Oiwoh, Chairman of Resident Doctors in LAUTECH, has described the workers’ sack as callous.

Oiwoh lamented that the sack at this festive period showed clearly that governance no longer wore a human face.

He gave the number of sacked workers as 256 and redeployed ones as 300, saying there was additional two from the number in the memorandum.

Oiwoh said no reason was given by the government on the development, noting that the government was behaving as if the country was in a military regime.

He stressed further that this would be the first time that resident doctors would be redeployed to the state service, saying it was against the ethics of the profession.

Oiwoh stated that the management had informed those affected to go to Osogbo and pick their redeployment letter on January 2, 2018.

“They cannot transfer or redeploy resident doctors, what they can do is that, if there is a shortage of equipment where the doctor is working, he can be taken to a hospital that has the equipment and later back to his base but not that they would be redeployed to the state service.

“Most of the people affected are the pioneer staff of the teaching hospital.

“Those that were redeployed is a plan by the state government to frustrate them out of service.

“But we are going to take all necessary actions to fight against this injustice,” he said. (INDEPENDENT)

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