Doctors in Ekiti State Teaching University Teaching Hospital (EKSUTH) under the aegis of the Medical and Dental Consultants’ Association of Nigerians have vowed not to accept payment of ‘amputated’ salary any longer.
The MDCAN chairman, Adeniran Atiba said the increase in the subvention to the health institution from N261 million to N411 million should be more than enough to pay full salary.
Speaking to journalists today, Thursday, February 8, in Ado Ekiti, Atiba said that with the over 70% increment in the subvention to the tertiary hospital the era of salary cuts should be over.
Explaining what he meant by ‘amputated’ salary, Atiba said it means payment of net salary after all deductions which the management fails to remit, reports The Nation.
“They don’t remit all the deductions to where they were supposed to be remitted.
He said: “A typical example is a Mortgage Bank loan, as I talk to you, they have actually deducted up to 25 months and they have not remitted it to the bank. “Those are the things that amounted to the salary amputation that we talk about. Even the cooperative deduction is also there. For me personally half of my salary goes to the cooperative. They are yet to remit for up to 11 months.
“In that case, I am being paid half of my salary for the period in question. That is why we say we are being paid an amputated salary. “We are appealing to Mr Governor that this increment in subvention will make the management pay our salary in full. If they must deduct anything the money deducted will be paid to the right place.
“What we are advising management to do now that they have received increased subvention, they should be paying our salary in full right from last month. They should give us a schedule of payment for the outstanding arrears. We are not saying that they should pay everything at once.
“When we appeal to the management and we are getting some form of resistance, we have to go beyond them. I want to tell you that. The management convened a meeting of stakeholders and in that meeting, we were told that the new subvention may still not be enough. But from our own calculation, we are saying that the subvention should be enough.
“We are saying that pay our salary first whatever is left can be left for the running of the hospital. As I have told you, Mr. Governor has done his bit. He has tried to improve our subvention to what we are receiving now. Any attempt not to use that money to pay our salary in full we are going to resist it.”
The MDCAN however lauded Oyebanji for increasing funding to the tertiary medical institution in Ekiti, promising to give 100 percent commitment to the service of the hospital.