Doctors angry; signal impending strike

The Ghana Medical Association (GMA) has given government a May 30, 2015 ultimatum to pay accumulated arrears of conversion difference because their base pay was reduced when they were enrolled onto the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS) or face their wrath.

According to the association, doctors working in the public sector continue to suffer from reduced pensions and benefits due to government’s refusal to pay conversion difference.

Conversion difference is defined by the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) as the difference between the salary of a jobholder overpaid on a previous salary structure and his current salary under the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS) in order not to make him or her worse off.

Dr Justice Yankson, Deputy General Secretary of the GMA, told The Finder that specialist doctors who retired before the Single Spine was introduced take as little as GH?204 a month as pension.

He explained that before doctors were migrated onto the SSSS in November 2011, doctors had taken government to the National Labour Commission (NLC) on overtime allowances, which the doctors won.

However, their migration resulted in a reduction in their base pay because the overtime allowance of 200 hours per doctor a month had increased their earnings.

Dr Yankson explained that the government paid the conversion difference from November 2011 to January 2012 and stopped.

According to him, government stopped paying the conversion difference under the pretext that overtime allowance for 200 hours a month had increased the salary of doctors.

According to him, doctors argue that overtime allowance cannot be a basis for reducing their base pay.

He said doctors then took government to the National Labour Commission, which ruled that the FWSC should pay doctors a conversion difference.

However, he said the NLC failed to go to court to enforce the ruling. According to him, government then hired private lawyers to go to court to quash the decision of the NLC.

Dr Yankson said not only did the NLC fail to defend its decision that the doctors deserved the payment of conversion difference and its directive for the FWSC to pay same, it also failed to put in an appearance.

As a result, the court gave a default ruling that doctors did not deserve the conversion difference.

He said the Commission should have defended its decision to award GMA members the conversion difference, defined by the FWSC as the difference between the salary of a jobholder overpaid on a previous salary structure and his current salary under the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS) in order not to make him or her worse off.

He explained that pensions are calculated on base pay; therefore, reduction in the base pay as a result of SSSS affects the benefits of doctors.

Meanwhile, the GMA in November 2014 gave government a June 30, 2015 ultimatum to spell out their conditions of service.

The doctors are frustrated by government’s failure to put in place service conditions for them as essential service providers.

They have warned they will consider themselves unemployed if their conditions of service are not negotiated and signed by the stipulated date.