Health workers issue fresh strike threat

Only a day after the government unveiled its Golden Jubilee Budget aimed at promoting growth and stability for all, a new threat of industrial action has just been posted by health workers.

Health workers in Accra say they are giving the government only two weeks, (end of November) to announce higher wages they have been expecting since June when the two parties signed a memorandum of understanding on a new salary scheme.

Coming just short of pronouncing a strike, the health workers held a press conference and explained that the November deadline is as far as their patience would last.

In the meantime, they say they have lost absolute hope in the government’s commitment to honouring its promises.

President Kufuor said in a foreword to the Budget presented to Parliament by the Finance Minister that there were problems at the labour front resulting partly from a distorted public sector salary structure, which was also poorly administered.

The government was therefore using the Budget to begin the implementation of a new comprehensive public sector pay reform that would emphasise equal pay for work of equal worth.

He said to ensure order and equity all round, the government was setting up a Fair Wages Commission to oversee the implementation of this new programme.

But the health workers said government was only trying to buy time with the proposed setting up of the Fair Wages Commission next year, and they were not going to wait for that.

They claimed that after negotiations in June, government was to start implementation by September, however two weeks to the date, government wrote to ask for the end of October to honour its part of the bargain.

The October date, they said, was also not honoured and two weeks into November, they still do not know the basis for arriving at their salaries because they are receiving levels of salaries as pertained in the pre-negotiation period.

Mrs Marian Sackeyfio, Chairperson of the Health Workers Union who was part of the team that addressed the press conference, told Joy News that she would not predict what health workers would do after the expiration of the deadline but hoped the press conference would be warning enough.

“That is why we have called this press conference to create the awareness, to sensitise the populace that this is what is coming because we know the suffering that our people are going through and I can’t tell you now what they may decide to do. The power lies with the health workers.”

Asked if the health workers did not find it prudent to wait for the implementation of government’s plans to address the wage disparities as contained in the budget, Mrs Sackeyfio said that would be asking for too much.

“No I don’t think it will be reasonable to wait because we are in a process which started as far back as 2004 and the implementation process should have started in January 2005 but that could not materialise until the government called in a consultant from the UK.

“The consultant came and did her underground work and was paid with hard cash, and the new salary structure was to take effect from January 2006 but she didn’t and rather went about scouring, just wanting to satisfy why we should attract the type of salaries that we wanted, and she came out with something.

“There were disparities that brought that agitation and we went to the Labour Commission who gave the ruling and an appellate body was formed to rectify the relativities and then give us our salary with effect from January so no health worker group apart from the doctors, has a salary structure now.”

“I don’t think it will be worthwhile going back for another commission, it will take another long time and for how long? Even if you read the letter the Deputy Minister sent it said they were buying time till the end of October so we thought after October, at least our suffering would cease but if we are to go back again, then what about the money paid to the UK consultant?”

In reaction Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom, Minister for Public Sector Reform said it was to avoid the very problems enumerated by the nurses, vis, “agreements are reached, work is to be done, because of the difficulties in the records and so many other things the work takes a bit more time to get done and so the expectations that have been raised are not met in a timely manner so people continue to be dissatisfied and that is why we have taken everybody’s time to talk about this comprehensive new pay structure and system.”

Reminded of the government’s promise of salary increases by January as contained in the budget and asked if the health workers would also benefit from the package and upon what basis, Dr. Nduom said the issues were quite jumbled.

“What I believe the health workers are still disagreeing, that is among themselves, are with the allocation and distribution of monies that have already been agreed for 2006, that is the issue. And that is the sorting themselves out that is what needs to be completed.

“My point to anyone who would say some of the things that I have heard being said is that the groups themselves should talk amongst each other to find some unity of purpose and ensure that we don’t bring what should be done in-house unto the streets unnecessarily.

“There is work to be done for sure but people should all put their thoughts and efforts together in unity to solve this problem because it doesn’t help anyone for everyday for us to hear this person is dissatisfied, that person is satisfied, no one is prepared to sit and wait to do the real difficult work that needs to be done. For once let’s all get the work done well.”

Indeed President Kufuor in his foreword to the budget quoted the old adage; “Rome was not built in a day”, and said: “Today, we are laying the first block for a more rational salary structure and administration.”

“I am, therefore, appealing to the nation and all its sectors to hold fast and rally together so that we pursue a collective vision in the belief and confidence that Ghana will succeed in becoming a middle income country by 2015.”