Striking workers shut Bingham University Teaching hospital

[Jos]Striking workers of the Bingham University Teaching Hospital, Jos, on Wednesday locked up the hospital’s gates, vowing to keep the hospital shut until their salaries were paid.

A correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), who visited the hospital, reports that no one was allowed into the premises as the angry workers turned back patients and staff on morning and afternoon shift duties.

Efforts to obtain details of the grievances proved abortive as workers of the ECWA Church-owned hospital are barred from forming a union, but a worker, who spoke on condition of anonymity, accused management of being insensitive to the welfare of workers.

“We do not have a union to articulate our concerns which has made us rather helpless, but management has taken our patience for granted,” the source said.

Mr Nuhu Asama, the hospital’s Director of Administration, told NAN that the workers’ anger was “based on emolument arrears owed them”.

“Management is working very hard to resolve the issues. We won’t want something like this to ever occur in this hospital again,” he said.

He promised that issues raised by the workers would be tackled “expediently”

Asama apologised to members of the public, especially the patients, for the hitch, and stressed management’s commitment to providing qualitative service to its patients.

NAN reports that management later convinced the workers to open the gates after promising to tackle their concerns “without any delay”.

(NAN)