War between GHOSPA leadership and FWSC CEO

There seems to be war brewing between leadership of the Government and Hospital Pharmacists Association (GHOSPA) and George Graham-Smith, the Chief Executive Officer of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC).

The two appear to be at loggerheads over the conversion difference of the pharmacists under the Single Spine Pay Policy (SSPP).

After staging one of the longest industrial strikes in the history of the country last year, GHOSPA was invited to a meeting together with FWSC by the National Labour Commission (NLC) to resolve the matter.

Though FWSC was directed by NLC to implement a prior decision by the Ghana Health Service, it failed to do so, forcing GHOSPA to send the matter to court.

FWSC had a ruling at the Accra High Court in its favour, but GHOSPA has since appealed Justice Adjetey Nassam’s ruling. The hiatus between now and when the appeal will be heard could not be borne by the Northern Region branch of GHOSPA, which has threatened to totally withdraw services if nothing positive comes up within 17 days.

“We continue to say that we are in engagement, but we can’t continue to do that when our members are not seeing results; we are not delivering,” lamented Raymond Tetteh, a past Chairman of GHOSPA.

Leadership of GHOSPA, after the Northern Region GHOSPA threat, lashed out at the CEO of FWSC, accusing him of acting like a dictator.

“He refuses to implement, and he makes mockery of the recommendations of oversight bodies,” Mr Tetteh said.

“When [the oversight bodies] make their recommendations, he throws it away. One man, he decides that I implement this. I don’t implement that, and you are dealing with the lives of so many people; professionals, who are providing services and we think it is unfortunate.”

But in a sharp rebuttal, Mr Graham-Smith said the pharmacists are rather subverting the rule of law.

“The fact of the matter is that when one is not entitled to anything, we cannot grant it and that if you believe you are entitled to it and we are going through the process as we do now, I don’t see why we are in a hurry. Why don’t we allow the processes to go on?” he asked.

“They said they were going on an appeal, so I was expecting them to go on appeal in court.”

He said the Commission takes decisions after weighing its options and in the case of GHOSPA, he does not think they deserve more under the SSPP.

“If it is something that we needed to implement, we will go ahead and implement.”