Nurses and midwives at the Ladoke Akintola University Teaching Hospital (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso in Oyo State, on Wednesday, issued a 15-day ultimatum to the hospital management over the alleged neglect of their welfare and conditions of service.
The workers, under the umbrella of the National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives (LAUTECH Teaching Hospital chapter), accused the management of repeatedly sidelining them whenever new benefits were approved for health workers in the state.
In a statement by the chapter Chairman, Ojewumi Olutayo, and its Secretary, Adedokun Foluwake, in Ibadan, the state capital, the workers noted that while their counterparts in other state-owned facilities had begun enjoying the new national minimum wage, workers of LAUTECH Teaching Hospital had been left out.
They also cited delayed payment of COVID-19 allowances and enhanced hazard allowances as examples of sustained neglect, which they said had pushed workers into economic hardship and low morale.
‘Our demands include, Immediate implementation of the new national minimum wage with effect from January 2025, payment of promotion arrears from 2018 to 2024, recruitment of additional nurses to ease the current staff shortage and renovation and proper furnishing of nurses’ stations and rooms.
‘The situation has become unbearable, and if the State Government did not intervene in time, we will have no option than to embark on strike at the expiration of the 15-day ultimatum’, the workers warned.
They further argued that the persistent exclusion of LAUTECH workers from state-wide welfare packages could only be corrected if the government took over direct payment of salaries.
The association warned that an industrial action in the hospital, which serves as the only state-owned tertiary health institution and referral centre for patients from Ogbomoso, Oyo, Iseyin, Okeho, Igbeti, Saki, Kisi, Otta, and neighbouring parts of Osun and Kwara States—would severely disrupt access to healthcare.
‘The impact will be felt most by pregnant women, children, accident victims, and patients requiring emergency interventions’.
The association, therefore, called on Governor Seyi Makinde to personally intervene, appealing to his sense of fairness and justice to end what they described as a cycle of exclusion that had demoralised nurses and midwives in the institution.
The ultimatum by LAUTECH nurses reflects a wider pattern of labour unrest in Nigeria’s health sector, where disputes over wages, allowances, and poor working conditions persist.
While Oyo State has rolled out welfare packages for health workers, LAUTECH staff claim they have been repeatedly excluded.
As the hospital is the state’s only tertiary referral centre, a strike could disrupt healthcare access for patients across Oyo and neighbouring states.
The dispute underscores systemic challenges in Nigeria’s healthcare system, including underfunding, staffing shortages, and welfare neglect of frontline workers.
