The organised Labour in Ekiti State has protested against the ongoing mass sack of workers by the Ekiti State Government.According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the state government recently sacked 1,000 workers of Ekiti State University (EKSU).

 

Also sacked were 200 workers of Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital (EKSUTH) who received their sack letters few days to Christmas. The Labour movement, in a letter addressed to the governor, expressed disgust at the development, which it described as “as ill-timed and too arbitrary.”

 

It warned against continuation of the trend, claiming that there were also plans to sack more workers across all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and schools.

The letter, jointly signed by Chairman, Trade Union Congress (TUC), Ekiti Chapter, Mr. Sola Adigun; Secretary, Nigeria Labour Congress, Mr. Taiwo Akinyemi; TUC Secretary, Mr. Lawrence Kuloogun and Joint Negotiating Council’s scribe, Mr. Gbenga Olowoyo, said that the sacking scenario was worrisome, regretting that it was attracting negative attention to the state.

 

The workers expressed shock that Fayemi, who reinstated workers sacked by his predecessors, was replicating same evil. They said that it was “imaginable” to issue sack letters as Christmas and New Year gifts to breadwinners, and described the situation as “killing.”

 

However, the Ekiti State government has denied the allegation that it was planning to carry out mass sack of workforce in some MDAs.

 

This denial came as medical workers, under the banner of Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU), issued a seven-day ultimatum to the management of EKSUTH to reverse the sack of 200 workers of the hospital or face industrial action.

 

A statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr. Yinka Oyebode, yesterday in Ado-Ekiti, said: “The attention of the Government of Ekiti State has been drawn to some media reports insinuating that the administration had concluded plans to sack workers in the MDAs.

 

“The state government wishes to place it on record that it has no plan to sack anyone in the MDAs. Instead, it is about concluding the process of employing about 3,000 workers in the teaching and civil service in the state.”

 

Meanwhile, JOHESU, in a statement by Chairman, National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives (NANNM), Monde C.K; Secretary, Falayi O.M. and other affiliate unions, said that the unions would embark on industrial action if those disengaged at EKSU were not reabsorbed within seven days.

 

“We are calling for immediate reversal of the sack of our members within seven day to avert industrial action.”