Health Workers Group call for action on salary review

Accra, Oct. 19, GNA - The Health Workers Group (HWG) on Thursday expressed dissatisfaction with "unfortunately slow pace approach" the Government has adopted in addressing their grievances of salary relativities and distortions in accordance with a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed on June 16, 2006.

A statement issued by the eight Groups in Accra said under the MOU, the Government was also to address "the concept of soft factors and premium to be reviewed to bring about equity in the pay structure". The Group is made up of the Association of Health Administrators; Ghana, Government and Hospital Pharmacists Association; Health Accounting Staff Association of Ghana; Health Services Workers' Union and Ghana Registered Nurses Association.

The others are Ghana Federation of Allied Health Professionals; Ghana Medical Assistants Association and Ghana Association of Nurse Anaesthetists.

Members of the Group withdrew their services earlier in the year to protest salary discrepancies between them and doctors in a strike that crippled Government health establishments.

The statement said the new salary levels granted doctors created a wide gap and the National Labour Commission last April ruled that future salary negotiations should work to bridge it.

The statement said in accordance with the MOU, an independent Appellate Body was set up to review the pay structures for doctors and other health workers.

They pointed out that it was as a result of the signing of the MOU in good faith that they managed to get their members back to work from their nationwide strike.

"The three-month deadline given (June - September) in the MOU for the Appellate Body has elapsed without any serious effort by this Body to conclude its work with the unacceptable excuse by the Ministry of Health that it was facing some bottlenecks in its work that needed to be cleared first."

The HWG cautioned that any attempt to flout the terms of the MOU would make it very difficult for the Leadership to restrain the anger and frustrations of their members.

"(We) therefore urge that the Government to remain committed to the agreed MOU and expedite action to enable the Appellate Body to conclude its work satisfactorily."

It said it was cautioning against certain wrong figures being quoted as salaries for health workers by some individuals and explained that those were cumulative and not monthly salaries of the affected health workers.

"We believe in the principle of 'equal pay for equal value' and we share with all public sector workers their concerns and sentiments. (We) plead with social commentators to crosscheck their facts and figures before coming out to the public," the statement said.