{"id":18072,"date":"2024-02-02T11:13:52","date_gmt":"2024-02-02T11:13:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=18072"},"modified":"2024-02-02T11:13:52","modified_gmt":"2024-02-02T11:13:52","slug":"protests-erupt-as-oauth-management-lays-off-1500-workers-amidst-job-racketeering-scandal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2024\/02\/02\/protests-erupt-as-oauth-management-lays-off-1500-workers-amidst-job-racketeering-scandal\/","title":{"rendered":"Protests Erupt as OAUTH Management Lays Off 1,500 Workers Amidst Job Racketeering Scandal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Following the Federal Government&#8217;s suspension of the director of the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital (OAUTH) for employment racketeering, the hospital&#8217;s management has taken immediate action by laying off over 1,500 personnel. The change, announced in a circular released on Wednesday, triggered a vehement protest from the affected personnel, who gathered outside the hospital gates in Ile-Ife yesterday.<\/p>\n<p>The contentious employment of these workers took place in 2022, but revelations of alleged job racketeering involving the hospital management and some staff prompted the Federal Government&#8217;s intervention, leading to the mass layoffs.<\/p>\n<p>Expressing their dissatisfaction, the aggrieved workers gathered at the entrance gates of OAUTH around 7.00 a.m., blocking all access points and disrupting the hospital&#8217;s normal operations. Their chants and protests underscored their demand for the management to reconsider its decision and addressed their concerns.<\/p>\n<p>The circular, signed by the Acting Director of Administration, O. O. Omonije, singled out a few workers while instructing over 1,500 others to cease identifying themselves as staff members of the hospital. This move, however, only intensified the workers&#8217; resolve to seek redress.<\/p>\n<p>The protest had a cascading effect on the hospital&#8217;s routine activities, causing inconvenience to patients and disrupting clinical services within and around the complex.<\/p>\n<p>In response to the situation, the affected workers are calling on the management to rescind the decision, settle outstanding salary arrears, and retract the allegations of their involvement in job racketeering.<\/p>\n<p>The Public Relations Officer (PRO) of OAUTH, Kemi Fasoto, indicated that the management is awaiting directives from the Minister of Health and Social Welfare regarding the unfolding issue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Following the Federal Government&#8217;s suspension of the director of the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital (OAUTH) for employment racketeering, the hospital&#8217;s management has taken immediate action by laying off over 1,500 personnel. The change, announced in a circular released on Wednesday, triggered a vehement protest from the affected personnel, who gathered outside the hospital gates [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":18079,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[184],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-18072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-featured"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18072"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18147,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18072\/revisions\/18147"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}