You have two weeks to refund deductions - GRNA

The Ashanti regional branch of the Ghana Registered Nurses Association (GRNA) has threatened to go on strike after two weeks, if government fails to refund monies deducted from members' salaries, in respect of the second-tier pension scheme.

This comes after members' earlier ultimatum asking government to meet their demand.

At a consultative meeting of members of the Association in Kumasi; they warned that anything short of the refund of all monies to their appointed managers would not be accepted.

The nurses said, government should be held responsible for any unpleasant consequences at the end of the given period.

They referred to Act 766 of 2008, which mandates all employees to appoint their own fund managers for the second-tier pension scheme, and said this is something, which the GRNA and other unions in the health sector, have done.

The nurses contended that what was left was for government to direct the Bank of Ghana (BOG) to transfer the five per cent deductions to the appointed managers to manage it on their behalf.

They said the persistent refusal to listen to the call by unionized workers on its payroll to transfer the deductions to their respective appointed managers had become a major worry- thus- fueling anxiety among many workers, especially those who would soon be on pension as they “do not know where to go for their second-tier pension”. Mr. Daniel Atta Tuffuor, regional Chairman of the Association, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that they were determined to press government to transfer the funds to the appointed managers.