‘NHIS Strike Illegitimate’

Sylvester Mensah, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), has described the strike action embarked upon by some schemes in the Eastern, Upper West and Ashanti regions as illegitimate.

In an interview with CITY & BUSINESS GUIDE yesterday, Mr Mensah debunked claims that the NHIS was collapsing.

Explaining further, he stated: “They wrote formally to the mother union requesting for permission to go on strike but Trades Union Congress (TUC) declined.”

He noted that “TUC claimed there was no basis for any strike action. “Last year, we increased salaries by 20 percent and this year, we are working to finalise the conditions of service. We have a final meeting Wednesday to finalise that.”

The NHIS CEO revealed that his outfit has had to contend with well over 97 issues, all of which had been resolved with the exception of two.

“We have addressed everything. We are left with only two items and those are what have been scheduled for Wednesday for discussion after which the conditions would be signed. On the basis of this, how can one go on strike?”

Mr Mensah said TUC has invited management of NHIS and “it will surely honour the invitation to listen to the concerns. I am sure we will take the necessary action thereafter.”

He told the paper that in the Greater Accra region, nobody embarked on strike. “In Western too, there was no strike action likewise Central.”

He said the strike action only took place in Eastern, Upper West region, where some four schemes embarked on strike and Ashanti, where about nine schemes embarked on strike.

“That was all the strike action. And there is no legitimate reason to go on strike! That is what we are saying.”

Commenting on salaries, he remarked: “There is no issue of salary. We are not discussing salaries now. This year, TUC has not come out with any quality bargaining arrangement. What we are doing now is revising our laws and when this is done, we will have a system by which we are going to reconcile and consolidate our salaries across country.”